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Andrews University
SEMINARY
STUDIES
Volume 22 Numbers Autumn 1984
Andrews University Press

ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SEMINARY STUDIES
The Journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104, U.S.A.
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Volume 22 Autumn 1984 Number 3
CONTENTS
ARTICLES
BACCHIOCCHI, SAMUELE. Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus' Rest

and the Sabbath................................ 289
STRAND, KENNETH A. An Overlooked Old-Testament
Background to Revelation 11:1.................... 317
SURING, MARGIT L. The Horn-Motifs of the Bible and the
Ancient Near East. .............................. 327
THOMPSON, GARTH D. On Pastors as Counselors. ........ 341
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
DE ALWIS, TISSA BRIAN. Christian-Buddhist Dialogue

in the Writings of Lynn A. De Silva. ............... 349
BADENAS, ROBERTO DAVID. The Meaning of TEAOE in
Romans 10:4. .................................. 351
CANALE, FERNANDO Luis. Toward a Criticism of
Theological Reason: Time and Timelessness
as Primordial Presuppositions. .................... 352
CHONG, DAYTON CHIN KEONG. A Study of Self-Esteem of
Delinquent Male Adolescents and the Perceived Degree
of Their Parents' Child-Rearing Practices. ........... 353
GUSTAVSEN, GUNNAR A. Selected Characteristics of
Home Schools and Parents Who Operate Them....... 355
BOOK REVIEWS ....................................... 357
Ball, Bryan W. The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of

Seventh-day Adventist Belief.............. Richard Kenneth Emmerson
Edwards, Mark U., Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Polemics and
Politics, 1531-46. ..................................Harry Leonard
288 CONTENTS
Emmerson, Richard Kenneth. Antichrist in the Middle Ages:

A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and
Literature. ........................................ Bryan W. Ball
Forell, George Wolfgang. The Luther Legacy .......... C. Raymond Holmes
Kaiser, Walter C., Jr. Toward Old Testament Ethics...... .GerhardF. Hasel
LaRondelle, Hans K. The Israel of God in Prophecy............. Jon Paulien
Larson, Bruce. Luke.................................... George E. Rice
Singer, Karl Helmut. Die Metalle Gold, Silber, Bronze, Kupfer
und Eisen im Alten Testament und ihre Symbolik...... Gerhard F. Hasel
BOOK NOTICES. ....................................... 380
INDEX TO VOLUME 22 (1984). ............................. 385
ABBREVIATIONS OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. .............. 389
*****

The Journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104, U.S.A.
The articles in this journal are indexed, abstracted, or listed in: Book Reviews of the
Month; Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus; International Bibliography of the
History of Religions; Internationale Zeitschriftenschau fur Bibelwissenschaft und
Grenzgebiete; New Testament Abstracts; Old Testament Abstracts; Orien-
talistische Literaturzeitung; Orient-Press; Recently Published Articles (publication
of the American Historical Association); Religion Index One: Periodicals (formerly
Index to Religious Periodical Literature); Religious and Theological Abstracts;
Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index; Subject Index to Periodical
Literature — Mosher Library; Theologische Zeitschrift; Zeitschrift fur die alt-
testamentliche Wissenschaft.
Copyright © 1984 by Andrews University Press ISSN 0003-2980

Andrews University Seminary Studies, Autumn 1984, Vol. 22, No. 3, 289-316.
Copyright © 1984 by Andrews University Press.
MATTHEW 11:28-30: JESUS' REST AND THE SABBATH*
SAMUELE BACCHIOCCHI
Andrews University
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt 11:28-30). Familiar-
ity with this logion often leads to the assumption that its meaning
is well understood. However, a reading of critical studies of this
passage reveals otherwise. 1 Perhaps "the deception lies," as noted
by Hans Dieter Betz, "in the character of the passage itself," which
is "open to meaning, i.e., it is like a vessel which itself has no
content, but which stands ready to be filled."2 This situation has
resulted in considerable discussion regarding the form, the origin,
and the significance of this passage.
The attention given to this logion is indicative of the impor-
tance attached to it. A. M. Hunter, for example, views the broader
passage in which it occurs, Matt 11:25-30, as "perhaps the most
important verses in the Synoptic Gospels."3 In a study published in
1909, Claude Montefiore candidly admitted that, as a Jew, he
wished "that Jesus may not have said these words," for if he did so,
they would provide notable encouragement to Christianity by the
exclusive claims set forth by Christ in this passage.4
The primary purpose of the following discussion is not to
examine the question of the origin and the authenticity of this
'Adapted from a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of
Biblical Literature, San Francisco, California, December 21, 1981.
'For an extensive bibliography, see Quell/Schrenk, "Pater," in TDNT, 5: 992,
n. 288; Lino Randellini, "L'anno di Giubilo: Mt. 11:25-30; Lc. 10:20-24," Rivista
Bi6/ira22(1974): 183, n. 1.
2Hans Dieter Betz, "The Logion of the Easy Yoke and of Rest (Matt. 11:28-30),"
JBL 86 (1967): 10.
3A. M. Hunter, "Crux Criticorum—Matt. 11:25-30—A Re-appraisal," NTS 8
(1962): 241.
«C. G. Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels (London, 1909), 2: 616; cf. p. 604.
289
290 SAMUELE BACCHIOCCHI
logion, but some attention will be given to these matters in an

excursus at the end of this article. Rather, my purpose herein is to
ascertain if Matthew's intent is to present Christ's promise of his
rest as the fulfillment of the Messianic rest typified by the OT sab-
bath. Consideration will also be given to some cultic implications
of the passage, including attention to the question of observance of
the sabbath day in the Matthean community.
1. The Literary Context

Our primary objective is to ascertain the meaning of Christ's
"rest" (anapausis) in Matt 11:28, and in pursuing this objective we
must consider carefully the literary context. In the parallel passage
in Luke 10, the specific saying about "rest" is omitted, and the
"hymn of Thanksgiving" (vs. 21; cf. Matt 11:25-26) is placed in the
context of the return of the Seventy (Luke 10:17-20). In Matthew's
context, however, the whole passage 11:25-30 is connected with the
rejection of Christ by the cities of Galilee.
Indeed, as for this wider context, the theme of opposition pre-
cedes and follows the passage and is central to both chaps. 11 and
12. Obviously, there were reasons for inserting the logion about
Christ's offer of his rest at this juncture. A clue to the reasons is
suggested by the overall structure of chaps. 11 and 12, as the fol-
lowing outline endeavors to show:
I. Rejection of the Messiah: Matt 11:1-24

a. 11:1-6: Doubting by John the Baptist and his disciples
b. 11:7-19: Rejection by unbelieving generation
c. 11:20-24: Rejection by Galilean cities
II. Revelation of the Messiah: Matt 11:25 to 12:13
a. 11:25-26: Thanksgiving for revelation and its recipients
b. 11:27: Self-disclosure of Messiahship
c. 11:28-30: Invitation to Messianic "rest"
d. 12:1-13: Explanation of Messianic rest
III. Rejection of the Messiah: Matt 12:14-50
a. 12:14: Plotting of Pharisees
b. 12:15-21: Withdrawal of Christ and secrecy of his
Messiahship
c. 12:22-37: Rejection of Christ's healings by Pharisees
d. 12:38-45: Rebuke to unbelieving generation
e. 12:46-50: Misunderstanding by relatives
JESUS' REST AND THE SABBATH 291
The above outline indicates that Matthew has placed the

passage containing the Messianic self-disclosure of Jesus between
several accounts of rejection or opposition. Presumably the con-
trast between rejection and revelation is designed to heighten the
significance of the latter. What the Matthean structure of the narra-
tive seems to say is, specifically, that at the very time when Jesus
was experiencing unusual opposition and misunderstanding from
the "wise and understanding" (11:25—the custodians of Israel's
wisdom [cf. Isa 29:14; Deut 4:6]), he disclosed his Messianic identity
and mission to the "babes" (11:25—the childlike disciples), promis-
ing them his "rest."
To interpret the significance of the ."rest" logion, it is also
necessary to examine its immediate context. The passage in
Matt 11:25-30 is generally recognized to be a "Thanksgiving
Hymn" consisting of three strophes: (1) thanksgiving for revela-
tion (vss. 25-26), (2) Messianic self-disclosure (vs. 26), and (3) invi-
tation to "rest" (vss. 28-30).5 Although the suggestion has been
made that originally the sayings of this passage may have been
spoken in isolation, in Matthew they form a coherent unit.6
The First Strophe

The first strophe (vss. 25-26) contains Christ's prayer of thanks-
giving to God for concealing "these things [tauta] from the wise
and learned" and for revealing "them to babes." The term "these
things" in the Matthean setting most probably refers to the "mighty
works" (vs. 23) mentioned in the previous paragraph. The connec-
tion is suggested by the editorial link, "at that time" (en ekeino to
kairo; cf. 12:1), which, as Pierre Bonnard points out, "has more
theological than chronological or topographical value."7 These
works were done by Christ in the Galilean cities, centers of rabbin-
ical learning. Such "works" had eschatological significance since
they witnessed to the appearance of the Messianic kingdom. The
5 E.g., Hunter, pp. 242-249, analyzes each of the three strophes independently.
Cf. Leopold Sabourin, It Vangelo di Matteo (Rome, 1977), 11: 627-633.
6Pierre Bonnard, L'Evangile selon Saint Matthieu (Paris, 1970), p. 166, remarks
that "the Lucan context of the passage (10:23) gives us reason to think that Matthew
has brought together here three sayings that Jesus could have uttered on different
occasions" (vss. 25-26, 27, 28-30).
'Ibid., p. 167.
thanksgiving of Christ would then be motivated by God's gracious

willingness (eudokia, vs. 26) to disclose the secret of Christ's Mes-
siahship, not to the "wise and learned" as Scribes and Pharisees,
but to the "simple" (nepiois) as the circle of his own disciples.8
The Second Strophe

The second strophe (vs. 27) is logically connected to the first
by explaining the medium through which the revelation occurs,
namely, from the Father through the Son: "All things have been
delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (vs. 27). This verse has been
a real storm center. Some have argued that Jesus could not have
made such an absolute claim to be "the Son" who "knows" and
"reveals" "the Father" in a most unique way. 9 Such a conscious-
ness of Christ's unique-sonship relationship to the Father is
regarded by them as a later christological development, reflected
especially in several sayings in the Gospel of John (cf. 3:35; 10:15).
A century ago, such a view led K. von Hase to call Matt 11:27 a
"meteor from the Johannine heaven." 10
However, to condemn as spurious any saying in the Synoptics
which has a parallel in John seems to be a rather arbitrary canon of
criticism. A. M. Hunter rightly remarks that the "precise opposite
might indeed be argued: that if we find in John a logion with
parallels in the Synoptics, John either depends on the Synoptics or
8Obviously, Jesus is not here making ignorance a qualification for the recep-
tion of the gospel. As Alfred Plummer well puts it, "Not all clever people are shut
out from the Kingdom, although some shut themselves out; for it is not intelligence,
but the pride of intellectual people, that excludes. And not all simple folk are
admitted; for it is not stupidity, but the humility of simple-hearted people, that
qualifies" (An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew
[London, 1915], p. 166). On the matter of Jesus disclosing his Messiahship at the
juncture I am here suggesting, cf. William Manson, Jesus the Messiah (Philadelphia,
1946), p. 108.
'Among those who hold this view are Ferdinand Hahn, Christologische
Hoheitstitel. Ihre Geschichte im fruhen Christenlum (Gottingen, 1964), p. 327;
W. G. Kiimmel, Verheissung und Erfiillung (Zurich, 1956), pp. 40-42; and Joachim
Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (Naperville, 111., 1967), pp. 37-49.
10K. von Hase, Die Geschichte Jesu (Leipzig, 1876), p. 422.
else draws upon an independent tradition." 11 Moreover, as Oscar

Cullmann points out, Jesus speaks of his sonship not only in John
but also in the Synoptics, though in a more reserved fashion.
Consequently, he concludes that "at this point the 'Johannine
heaven' is really no different from the Synoptic heaven, although it
does of course appear from a different point of view." 12
Messianic Self-Disclosure. More important to our investigation
than this discussion of authenticity is the question of what the
saying means. Joachim Jeremias notes that "Matthew 11:27 is a key
statement by Jesus about his mission." 13
This saying is viewed by several scholars as a Messianic
proclamation. For example, Rudolf Otto writes: "Matthew regarded
the words as a Messianic proclamation made in public, correspond-
ing to the later standpoint that Jesus came as the complete Messiah
and appeared as such from the start." 14 Similarly, William Manson
comments: "Jesus knows himself, as the Chosen One, the Beloved,
the 'Son' of the Father. The saying, therefore, is definitely Mes-
sianic in form." 15
In Matthew, this unique self-disclosure of Jesus comes long
before Peter's Confession at Caesarea Philippi (16:15-16), apparently
as an early prelude to that later Petrine Confession. The Matthean
gradual disclosure of Jesus' Messiahship is well recognized. Thus,
the saying could represent an initial unveiling of the secrecy of
Christ's Messiahship. At this early stage, however, Matthew still
relates that Jesus ordered his followers "not to make him known"
(12:16).
"Hunter, p. 245. In a similar vein M. D. Goulder writes: "In view of the

evidential and a priori case for supposing that John had read Matthew, it is possible
that Matt. 11:27 was seminal for this theology" (Midrash and Lection in Matthew
[London, 1974], p. 362).
l2Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament (Philadelphia,
1960), p. 287. See also pp. 288-290, where Cullmann examines the crucial texts on
the "Son of God."
''Joachim Jeremias, Abba (Gottingen, 1966), p. 51. Jeremias, however, inter-
prets the Father-Son generically: "Just as only a father really knows his son, so only
a son really knows his father" (p. 50).
'•"Rudolf Otto, The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man (Grand Rapids,
Mich., 1956), p. 235.
15William Manson, p. 106.
The Title "Son." Jeremias and others have objected to the

Messianic interpretation of the saying because they contend that
the title "the Son" is never used in Jewish sources as a designation
for the Messiah. 16 But this view is not exactly accurate. R. H. Fuller
and other scholars have drawn attention to the evidence of the
Florilegium from Cave 4 at Qumran where the text of 2 Sam 7:14
("I will be his father and he shall be my son") is quoted and
applied to the Mashiah ben David. 11 A similar usage can be found
in 2 Esdras 7:28, where the Most High says: "For my son the Mes-
siah shall be revealed with those who are with him." 18 Though
these are not explicitly titular uses, it would seem fair to conclude
with Fuller that "Son of God was just coming into use as a
Messianic title in pre-Christian Judaism. ... It meant not a meta-
physical relationship, but adoption as God's vice-gerent in his
kingdom." 19
Regardless of whether or not the title "Son" was a current
Messianic designation, we must reckon with the possibility that
Jesus may have used it to express his Messianic identity. As I. H.
Marshall observes, "The evidence strongly suggests that the fun-
damental point in Jesus' self-understanding was his filial relation-
ship to God and that it was from.this basic conviction that he
undertook the tasks variously assigned to the Messiah, Son of Man
and Servant of Yahweh, rather than that the basic datum was con-
sciousness of being the Messiah." Consequently, Marshall con-
cludes, "the argument that 'the Son' was not a current messianic
title becomes irrelevant."20
16Jeremias, p. 40; and idem, The Parables of Jesus (New York, 1965), p. 73; cf.
W. G. Kiimmel, Heilsgeschehen und Geschichte (Marburg, 1965), pp. 215-217.
"R. H. Fuller, The Foundations of New Testament Christology (New York,
1965), pp. 31-33. A detailed discussion is provided by Otto Betz, "Die Frage nach
dem messianischen Bewusstsein Jesu," NT 6 (1963): 20-48; and additional rabbinic
evidence is given by Hahn, pp. 284-287. For a perceptive fairly recent study, see I. H.
Marshall, "The Divine Sonship of Jesus," Int 21 (1967): 87-103.
18Similar references are found in 2 Esdr 7:29; 13:32, 37, 52; 14:9; cf. also
1 Enoch 105:2; 90:37.
"Fuller, p. 33.
20Marshall, p. 93. For a discussion of the christological usage of the title "Son"
in John, Hebrews, and Paul, see Randellini, pp. 209-214, and also Cullmann,
pp. 275-290.
In the Synoptic Gospels it is abundantly clear that the title

"Son" or "Son of God" represents the Christian equivalent of the
Jewish term "Messiah." 21 This is indicated by the fact that at the
moments of supreme revelation of Baptism and Transfiguration,
the voice from heaven addresses Jesus not as "Christ" but as "My
Son, the Beloved" (Matt 3:17; 17:5 and par.). 22 Similarly, demons
(Matt 8:29), the disciples (Matt 14:33), and the centurion at the
cross (Matt 27:54) acknowledge Jesus as "the Son of God." Peter's
confession of Christ, which in Mark 8:29 reads "You are the
Christ," is expanded in Matthew: "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God" (16:16). Messiahship and divine sonship are
equated very explicitly also in Matt 26:63, where the High Priest
commands Jesus, "Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."
In the light of these indications, we can safely conclude that for
Matthew, Jesus by proclaiming himself to be "the Son" who
"knows" and "reveals" "the Father" was indeed, in an exclusive
way, asserting his Messianic claims.
The Third Strophe

What is the connection between Jesus' Messianic self-disclosure
found in the first two strophes (vss. 25-27) and his offer of "rest"
repeated twice in the third strophe (vss. 28-30)? Those who inter-
pret the passage in the light of concepts and terminology of wis-
dom literature see the theme of "wisdom" or "teaching" as the
connecting link of the whole passage. Jesus as the Revealer of the
Father's wisdom offers "rest" to those burdened with the Pharisaic
interpretation of the law, through the mild and easy yoke of his
21 Marshall, pp. 91-98, cogently refutes the contention that the title "the Son"
must be distinguished from "the Son of God."
22Cullmann, pp. 284-285, observes: "It is certainly no accident that the words
from heaven at the transfiguration partially repeat those of the heavenly voice at the
baptism. Just at the moments of his life when for him the barriers between heaven
and earth disappear briefly, Jesus hears the address 'Son of God.'" Richards.
McConnell, Law and Prophecy in Matthew's Gospel (Basel, 1969), p. 158, concludes
his analysis of the Matthean passages using the titles "the Son" or "the Son of God"
by saying: "These various passages indicate that Matthew thinks of Jesus as the
Messiah in terms of his unique relationship with God the Father, that is, as the
divine Son of God."
teaching. 23 Without denying the insights that wisdom categories

may offer into the significance of the whole passage, we may none-
theless question the failure of such an interpretation to recognize
the Messianic implications of the saying.
If the first two strophes present Jesus not merely as a wise
teacher, in persona sapientiae, but as the Messiah, then the third
strophe (vss. 28-30) about the "rest" offered by Christ presumably
also has Messianic connotations, even though couched in sapiental
language. Support for this view is provided by the hope for rest
and peace which played a major role in the Jewish Messianic
expectations. Joseph Klausner provides numerous examples from
the OT and later Jewish literature where the Messianic age is
idealized as a time of rest, peace, and prosperity.24 This notion of
Messianic rest and peace seems to have been derived from the
concept and experience of the sabbath "rest" (menuha), which, as
A. J. Heschel explains, "to the biblical mind ... is the same as
happiness and stillness, as peace and harmony."25
2. The Sabbath Rest

The notion of "rest" was utilized in the OT to express the
national aspirations for a peaceful life in a land at rest (Deut 12:9;
25:19; Isa 14:3), where the king would give to the people "rest from
all enemies" (2 Sam 7:1; cf. 1 Kgs 8:5) and where God would find
his "resting place" among his people and especially in his sanctu-
ary at Zion (2 Chron 6:41; 1 Chron 23:25; Ps 132:8, 13, 14; Isa 66:1). 26
These references to political "rest" (menuha) do not, of course,
allude specifically to the sabbath rest. The connection between
sabbath rest and national rest is clearly established in Heb 4:4, 8,
"See, e.g., Tomas Arvedson, Das Mysterium Chrisli. Ein Studie zu MT 11.25-30
(Uppsala, 1937), pp. 201-208; also Fohrer Wilkens, "Sophia," TDNT, 7: 516-517.
24Joseph Klausner, The Messianic Idea in Israel (New York, 1955), pp. 63-71,
283, 300, 309, 341, 376-379, 468-469. Among numerous references to Messianic rest
and peace are Isa 32:18; 65:19-23; Zech 9:9-10; 1 Enoch, chaps. 5, 10, 11, 48, 70, 71;
Jub. 23:26-31; T. Sim. 6:15; T. Levi 18:2-6; 2 Apoc. Bar. 29:3; 4 Ezra 8:52.
25Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New
York, 1951), p. 23.
26On the development of the rest-theme in the OT, see Gerhard von Rad,
"There Remains Still a Rest for the People of God," in The Problem of the
Hexateuch and Other Essays (New York, 1966), pp. 94-102.
where appeal is made to a familiar concept. Another indication is

provided by the following midrash on Ps 92: "A Psalm, a song. For
the Sabbath day ... for the day when God's people abide in peace
as is said: And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation,
and in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places [Isa 32:18]." 27
The Sabbath Rest as a Symbol of the Messianic Age

The Sabbath rest and peace became a symbol of the Messianic
age, often known as the "end of days" or "world to come." 28 Theo-
dore Friedman notes that "two of the three passages in which
Isaiah refers to the Sabbath [Isa 56:4-7; 58:13-14; 66:22-24] are
linked by the prophet with the end of days," and he goes on to say:
It is no mere coincidence that Isaiah employs the words
"delight" (oneg) and "honor" (kavod) in his descriptions of both
the Sabbath and the end of days (58:13—"And you shall call the
Sabbath delight. . . and honor it"; 66:11—"And you shall delight
in the glow of its honor"). The implication is clear. The delight
and joy that will mark the end of days is made available here and
now by the Sabbath.29
The Testament of Levi (ca. 110-70 B.C.) enumerates the events
to occur during the seven weeks (or jubilees) preceding the coming
of the Messianic priest, who "shall shine forth as the sun on the
earth, and shall remove all darkness from under heaven, and there
shall be peace in all the earth."30 In the apocalyptic work known as
"The Midrash on Psalms, trans. William G. Braude (New Haven, 1959), 2: 113.
The book of Hebrews presents what may be called three different levels of meaning
of the Sabbath rest: creation-rest (4:3), national-rest (4:6, 8), redemption-rest (4:3, 7,
9, 10). For my analysis of the passage, see Divine Rest for Human Restlessness
(Rome, 1980), pp. 135-136, 164-170; and From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome, 1977),
pp. 63-69.
28W. D. Davies points out that "the distinction between the Age to come and the
Messianic Age is a comparatively late development, and it follows that they were
often synonymous terms in early apocalyptic" ("Rabbinical Sources," in Messianism
in the Talmudic Era [New York, 1979], p. 255; cf. p. 261). Generally speaking, the
Messianic age is seen as flowing into the world-to-come (cf. Klausner, pp. 23-25,
516-517).
29Theodore Friedman, "The Sabbath: Anticipation of Redemption," Judaism
16 (1967): 445.
30 T. Levi 18, in APOT, 2: 314. The "weeks" are a seven-year period, but the
author sometimes confuses them with jubilees. For an analysis of the passage, see
Klausner, pp. 313-314.
The Books of Adam and Eve (ca. first century A.D.), the archangel
Michael admonishes Seth, saying: "Man of God, mourn not for the
dead more than six days, for on the seventh day is the sign of
resurrection and the rest of the age to come; for on the seventh day
the Lord rested from all His works."31 This "age to come" or
"world to come" is frequently equated with the Messianic age,82
which is characterized by material abundance (Amos 9:13-14; Isa
30:23-25; Jer 31:12), social justice (Isa 61:1-9), harmony between
persons and animals (Hos 2:20; Isa 65:25; 11:6), refulgent light
(Isa 30:26; Zech 14:6-7), and peace and rest (Isa 32:18; 14:3).
These various characteristics of the Messianic age are grouped
together in 2 Baruch, another Jewish apocalyptic work from the
latter half of the first century A.D., where the author describes "the
time of My Messiah," saying: '"And it shall come to pass, when He
has brought low everything that is in the world, and has sat down
in peace for the age on the throne of His kingdom, that joy shall
then be revealed, and rest shall appear.'"33 In 2 Esdras, still another
apocalyptic book of approximately the same period, the seer is
assured: "It is for you that paradise is opened, the tree of life
planted, a city is built, rest is appointed" (8:52).34 In the Testament
of Daniel 5:11-12 (about 110-70 B.C.) the expected Messiah will
"give to them that call upon him eternal peace. And the saints
shall rest in Eden."35
dEveH-.l-Z, in APOT2: 153. Cf. Apoc. Moses 43:3. A similar view is

found in Gen. Rab. 17:5: "There are three antitypes: the antitype of death is sleep,
the antitype of prophecy is dream, the antitype of the age to come is the Sabbath."
See also Gen. Raft. 44:17.
S2See above, n. 28. Willy Rordorf states, "In the overwhelming majority of
passages the sabbath of the end time was thought to be paradise restored," which
was associated with the days of the Messiah. Some of the supporting references he
gives are: "Isa 2:2-5; 25:6ff.; 60-61 and passim; Assumption of Moses 10:1; Testament
of Daniel 5; Enoch 107:1; Syriac Baruch 73ff.; Sibylline Oracles 111:367-380, 652-
660; 767-795; v: 281-3." Other references, however, according to Rordorf, indicate
that the Messianic age precedes or anticipates the actual establishment of the new
age. See his discussion in Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in
the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church (Philadelphia, 1968), pp. 48-50.
S32 Apoc. Bar. 72:2 and 73:1, in APOT, 2: 518 (emphasis supplied).
MFrom The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (New York, 1965), p. 45 (emphasis
supplied).
35 T. Dan. 5:11-12, in APOT, 2:334.
Rabbinical literature provides explicit examples where the

sabbath rest and the septenary structure of time are used to signify
the world-to-come and the coming of the Messiah. For example, in
Sanhedrin 97a in the Babylonian Talmud we read: "Our Rabbis
taught: at the conclusion of the septennate the son of David will
come. R. Joseph demurred: But so many septennates have passed,
yet has he not come!" The seventh age of the world, associated
with the coming of the Messiah, is often described as a time of
sabbatical rest. Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 18 states: "The Holy One,
blessed be He, created seven aeons, and of them all He chose the
seventh aeon only, the six aeons are for the going in and coming
out (of God's creatures) for war and peace. The seventh aeon is
entirely Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting." 36 In the Mishnah
Tamid 7:4 we read: "On the Sabbath they sang A Psalm: A Song
for the Sabbath Day; a Psalm, a song for the time that is to
come, for the day that shall be all Sabbath and rest in the life
everlasting."37
Jesus' "Rest" and the Sabbath Rest

The foregoing examples suffice to show the existence of a Mes-
sianic interpretation of the rest of the sabbath. The weekly rest-
experience of the sabbath served to epitomize the future peace and
rest to be established by the Messiah. The time of Messianic
redemption came to be viewed as "all sabbath and rest."38
i6Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, trans. Gerald Friedlander (New York, 1971), p. 141. A
similar view is expressed on p. 136: " 'And on the seventh day God finished his
work' (Gen. 2:2). The Holy One. blessed be He, created seven dedications, six of
them He dedicated, and one is reserved for the (future) generations."
"TVie Mishnah, trans. Robert Danby (London, 1933), p. 589. (Cf. RoL HaS. 31a;
Rer. 57a.) I too consider the saying as being genuine; but it should be pointed out
that even if the logion were spurious, the fact remains that the Evangelist thought it
worthy and the Church accepted it as worthy. Thus, irrespective of the question of
origin and authenticity, this saying has something to tell us about how Matthew
and his community understood Christ's person and mission.
38Ibid. The viewing of the sabbath as the symbol and anticipation of the
Messianic age gave to the celebration of the weekly sabbath a note of gladness and
hope for the future. Cf. Gen. Rab. 17. Friedman, pp. 447-452, shows how certain
sabbath regulations established by the school of Shammai were designed to offer a
foretaste of the Messianic age.
The existence of this Messianic understanding of the sabbath

rest strengthens the concept that Matthew's reference to the "rest"
promised by Jesus was considered as the fulfillment of this expected
Messianic rest. Such an interpretation fits not only the immediate
context, as we shall soon see, but also the overall fulfillment
scheme of the Gospel, where significant teachings and events of
Jesus' life from his birth to his death are presented as the fulfill-
ment of the OT Messianic prophecies.
In terms of the immediate context, Matthew's placing the
logion of the "rest" offered by Jesus right after Jesus' Messianic
disclosure was presumably intended to substantiate the latter
through the former. In other words, through the structural arrange-
ment of the narrative, Matthew seems to be saying that Jesus not
only revealed (vss. 25-26) and proclaimed (vs. 27) his Messiahship,
but also demonstrated it by offering the Messianic rest typified by
the sabbath.39
Luke provides a somewhat similar parallel in the account of
the Nazareth address (Luke 4:16-21). Here Jesus announces his
Messianic program by quoting a passage from Isa 61:1-3 (and 58:6)
which describes, by means of the imagery of the sabbatical year, the
liberation which the Servant of the Lord would bring to his
people. It would seem that as in Luke 4:16-21 Jesus inaugurates his
public ministry by proclaiming himself to be the fulfillment of the
Messianic liberation nourished by the vision of the sabbath years
(vs. 21), so in Matt 11:25-30 he discloses for the first time his
Messiahship by offering the "rest" typified by the weekly sabbath
day. 40
Jesus' "Rest" and Sabbath Pericopes

That Matthew intends to connect the rest offered by Christ
with the sabbath rest is suggested by his placing the former (11:28-
30) in the immediate context of two sabbath pericopes (12:1-14).
The two are connected not only structurally but also temporally or
"Quell/Schrenk, p. 993, points out that Matt 11:28-30 "is not an unimportant
appendix" to the preceding two strophes. "It develops further the contents of I and
II (vs. 25-27)... As anaw Jesus promises the aniyyim Messianic menucha."
<0For my analysis of Luke 4:16-21, see Divine Rest, pp. 145-149, and From
Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 19-23; and concerning Matt 11:25-30, cf. Plummer, p. 167,
and Sabourin, p. 629.
theologically by the Matthean phrase "at that time" (en ekeino to

kairo, 12:1). This connection has been noticed by several scholars. 41
Donald A. Carson has noted the significance of the juxtaposition
of Jesus' invitation and the two sabbath pericopes as follows: "As if
such a juxtaposition were not enough, Matthew then carefully
points out that the Sabbath conflicts occurred 'at that time' (£v
£iceiv<a T<B Kovpcp)—presumably at or near the time when Jesus had
spoken of His rest." 42
"Rest" and the "Easy Yoke"

The connection which Matthew establishes between Jesus'
offer of his rest and the two sabbath pericopes suggests the possibil-
ity that the meaning of the former may be illuminated by the latter.
This possibility will be explored shortly. First, let us consider the
nature of the "rest" (anapausis) that Jesus offers to "all who labor
[kopiontes] and are heavy laden [pephortismenoi]."
The formula for "rest" is expressed in a conscious paradox:
"Take my yoke [zugon] upon you and learn from me . . . and you
will find rest [anapausin] for your souls. For my yoke is easy and
my burden is light" (11:29-30). How can a "yoke" be easy and give
rest? The paradox evaporates when we remember that the saying is
part of Jesus' Messianic self-disclosure. Jesus is speaking to those
who already bear a "yoke," that is, to those who "labor" to find
truth and assurance of salvation, and who feel "heavy laden" by
religious observances (Matt 23:4) or perhaps by the sorrows of life
which make them restless. To these Jesus offers his Messianic
"yoke," that is, the restful assurance of redemption through attach-
ment to him.
The metaphor of the "yoke" was commonly used to express
subordination and loyalty to God, especially through obedience to
his law. Thus Jeremiah speaks of the leaders of the people who
knew "the law of their God, but they all alike had broken the yoke,
they had burst the bonds" (5:5; cf. 2:20). In the following chapter,
"See, e.g., J. Danielou, Bible and Liturgy (South Bend, Ind., 1956), p. 226;
David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (London, 1972), pp. 209-210; Rordorf, p. 109;
Sabourin, p. 629.
42D. A. Carson, "Jesus and the Sabbath in the Four Gospels," in D. A. Carson,
ed., From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investiga-
tion (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1982), p. 98.
the same prophet says to the people: "Find rest for your souls" by
learning anew obedience to God's law (6:6; cf. Num 25:3). Rabbis
often spoke of "the yoke of the Torah," "the yoke of the kingdom
of heaven," "the yoke of the commandments," "the yoke of God."43
Rabbi Nehunya b. Kanah (ca. 70) is reported to have said: "He
that takes upon himself the yoke of the Law, from him shall be
taken away the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly care"
(Pirke Aboth 3:5). What this means is that devotion to the law and
its interpretation is supposed to free a person from the troubles and
cares of this world.
The imagery of the law as a yoke could deceive us into think-
ing that the law was generally viewed as a burdensome strait-
jacket. In reality, however, to the devout believer the law expressed
not slavery, but, as M. Maher aptly puts it, "the desire to place
oneself under the direct rule of God and devote oneself entirely to
performing his revealed will." 44 Thus, the Psalmist declares
"blessed" the person whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and
on his law he meditates day and night" (Ps 1:1, 2; cf. 112:1). "Great
peace have those who love thy law" (Ps 119:165; cf. 119:18, 105).
The conflict between Judaism and early Christianity has unfortu-
nately obscured the fact that there were indeed noble Jews to
whom, as C. G. Montefiore affirms, "the Law was a delight and no
burden."45
Yoke: Principle or Person?

The contrast between Jesus' teaching and the Pharisaic con-
cept of religion has undoubtedly been exaggerated by the apolo-
getic interests of the early Church in frequent conflict with
Judaism. The fact remains, however, that Jesus did preach a new
""The yoke of the Torah": Pirke Aboth 3:5; Sanhedrin 94b; Gen. Rab. 67:7.
"The yoke of the kingdom of heaven": Sofa 47b; Sanhedrin lllb. "The yoke of the
commandments": M. Ber. 2:2. "The yoke of God": Pss. Sol. 7:8. For additional
references to the "yoke," see H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen
Testament aus Talmud und Midrash (Munich, 1933), 1: 608-610; I. Abrahams,
Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels (Cambridge, 1924), pp. 4-14. Cf. also
Ecclesiasticus 51:26; Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1; 1 Clem. 16:17; Did. 6:1.
"M. Maher, "Take my Yoke upon You (Matt. 11:29)," NTS 22 (1976): 99.
"C. G. Montefiore, Rabbinic Literature and Gospel Teachings (London, 1930),
p. 239.
religion and offered a new "yoke" of discipleship, which is charac-

terized in Matthew as "easy" (chrestos) and "light" (elaphron).
This newness must be seen in Jesus' claim to be the Messiah—the
One who fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the OT (cf. Matt
1:22; 2:5, 6, 15, 16; 4:13, 16; etc.); the One who brought the expected
salvation and inaugurated the kingdom of God (Matt 4:17; 12:28);
the One who possesses "all authority" (exousia) and promised to
be present with his disciples "to the close of the age" (Matt
28:18-20).
Matthew sets forth the "yoke" of Christ, not as commitment to
a new Torah, but as dedication to a Person who is the true Inter-
preter and Fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets. The emphasis on
the Person is self-evident in our logion: "Come to me . . . take my
yoke . . . learn from me ... 7 will give you rest." 46 Moreover, the
parallel structure of vss. 28 and 29 indicates that taking the "yoke"
of Jesus is equivalent to "come to" and "learn from" him. That is
to say, it is to personally accept Jesus as Messiah. Such an accep-
tance is an "easy" and "light" yoke, not because Jesus weakens the
demands of the law (cf. Matt 5:20), but because, as T. W. Manson
puts it, "Jesus claims to do for men what the Law claimed to do;
but in a different way." 47 The difference lies in Christ's claim to
offer to his disciples (note the emphatic kago) the rest of Messianic
redemption to which the law, and more specifically, the sabbath,
had always pointed.
3. Two Sabbath Pericopes: Matthew 12:1-14

The two sabbath pericopes which Matthew links structurally
and temporally to the logion of the "easy yoke" and "rest" seem to
provide what may be called "an halakic interpretation" of how the
Messianic rest offered by Jesus is related to the sabbath.
The Disciples' Plucking Ears of Corn: Matthew 12:1-8

In the first pericope about the disciples' plucking ears of corn
on a sabbath (Matt 12:1-8), Jesus employs two arguments to defend
<6The emphasis on the "rest" to be found in the Person of Chris*, is made even
more emphatic, as noted by William Hendriksen, in the Syriac (Peshitta) transla-
tion: "Come to me . . . and I will rest you . . . for I am restful. . . and you shall find
rest for yourselves" (The Gospel of Matthew [Edinburgh, 1973], pp. 504-505).
"T. W. Manson, The Mission and Message of Jesus (New York, 1938), p. 478.
the conduct of his disciples: the first from the prophetic section of
the OT, namely, the example of David (1 Sam 21:1-7); the second,
from the Torah proper, namely, the example of the priests, who
"in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless" (12:5; cf.
Num 28:9, 10; Lev 24:8, 9).
Some exegetes rightly note that the analogy between David
and Christ may indicate not only a correspondence of a situation of
need but also of persons—on the one hand, David, the king of
Israel and the type of the Messiah-king; and on the other hand,
Jesus, the Messiah, the antitype of David. 48 However, the second
argument about the priests is more directly related to our inquiry
into the possible relationship between Jesus' offer of rest and the
sabbath. A host of activities, illegal for ordinary persons, were per-
formed by the priests on the sabbath. On that day, Temple services
and sacrifices were intensified (four lambs were sacrificed instead of
the daily two, Num 28:8, 9). Even though working more inten-
sively, the priests were "guiltless" (Matt 12:5).
Why were the priests "guiltless"? The answer seems to be
found in the redemptive nature of their sabbath work. An impor-
tant function of the sabbath was to provide physical and spiritual
"release" (aphesis).*9 The intensification of the Temple services
and sacrifices on the sabbath pointed to the special release from sin
and guilt that God offered to the people on that day. The Book of
Jubilees explains that "burning frankincense and bringing obla-
tions and sacrifices before the Lord . . . shall be done on the
Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that they may
atone for Israel with sacrifice..." (50:10-11). According to
Matthew, Christ finds in the redemptive work performed by the
priests on the sabbath a valid basis to justify his own sabbath
"See P. Benoit, "Les epis arraches (Mt. 12:1-8 et par.)," Exegese el Theologie 3
(1968): 238; A. J. B. Higgins, Jesus and the Son of Man (Philadelphia, 1964), p. 30;
and Sabourin, p. 636.
•"The term "release" (aphesis) is commonly used in the LXX to translate the
Hebrew designations for the sabbatical and jubilee years. The same term is used in
the NT almost always with the meaning of "forgiveness." This suggests that the
vision of the sabbatical release from social injustices functioned as the prefiguration
of the Messianic release from the bondage of sin. For an informative treatment of
this question, see Robert B. Sloan, The Favorable Year of the Lord: A Study of
Jubilary Theology in the Gospel of Luke (Austin, Texas, 1977), p. 27.
ministry, because he views it as "something greater than the

temple" (12:6). This apparently means that the redemption offered
typologically through the Temple's services and the sacrifices
offered by the priests, is now being provided antitypically through
the saving mission of the Son of Man, the Messiah. 50 Therefore,
just as the priests were "guiltless" in performing their sabbath
services in the Temple, so were Jesus' disciples in serving the One
who is greater than the Temple.
A similar argument is found in John 7:22-23, where Jesus
argues that if the priests could circumcise on the sabbath a new-
born child in order to extend to him the salvation of the covenant,
there is no reason to be "angry" with him for restoring on that day
"a man's whole body."51 It appears that Matthew alludes to this
redemptive function of the sabbath also in the following verse,
where Jesus quotes Hos 6:6, saying, "If you had known what this
means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have con-
demned the guiltless" (Matt 12:7). The implication seems to be that
the disciples are "guiltless" though they had contravened the sab-
bath law of complete rest, because the meaning of the command-
ment is not merely "sacrifice" (that is, a Godward-directed and
outward religious duty), but also "mercy" (that is, a manward-
directed attitude and activity of compassion and concern motivated
by love for God). 52
The sabbath is linked both to creation (Gen 2:2, 3; Exod 20:8-
11) and to redemption (Deut5:15). By interrupting all secular
activities, the Jew was remembering the Creator-God; by acting
mercifully toward fellow beings, he was imitating the Redeemer-
God (Exod 23:9, 12; Lev 25:41, 42, 54, 55). This was true, not only
in the life of the people who on the sabbath day were to be compas-
sionate toward the lower orders of society, 53 but also in the Temple,
50This view is held by various scholars. Gerhard Earth, e.g., comments that by
the phrase "something greater than the temple is here . . . undoubtedly Jesus is
meant, for in him the Messianic fulfillment and consummation has come and he is
therefore more than the Temple" (Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew
[Philadelphia, 1963], p. 82).
51 The text of John 7:22-23 is examined in my Divine Rest, pp. 155-156.
52For a valuable study on Matt 12:7, see David Hill, "On the Use and Meaning
of Hosea6:6in Matthew's Gospel," NTS 24 (1978): 107-119.
53The humanitarian concern of the sabbath is expressed in Exod 23:12—"Six
days you shall do your work, but on the seventh you shall rest; that your ox and
where the priests engaged in a host of activities designed to extend

salvation to the people.
Thus, what Matthew appears to be saying is that the obser-
vance of the sabbath must be viewed from the perspective of God's
redeeming mercy. On that basis, the conduct of the disciples can be
defended. 54
In the context of this interpretation of the sabbath, Matthew
inserts a Messianic proclamation of lordship over the sabbath: "For
the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath" (12:8). While Mark links
this saying to the previous affirmation, "The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the sabbath" (2:27),55 Matthew connects ("for" —
gar) the lordship of Christ over the sabbath to his being "greater
than the temple" and to divine mercy contemplated by the sabbath.
This suggests that for Matthew, Jesus' lordship over the sabbath is
determined by Jesus' Messianic fulfillment of the redemption and
mercy typified by the Temple and its sabbath services. If this inter-
pretation is correct, then the logia about Messianic rest (11:28-29)
and about Messianic lordship over the sabbath (12:8) are theologi-
cally connected by the same fulfillment-motif of the Messianic
redemption prefigured by the sabbath.
The Man with the Withered Hand: Matthew 12:9-14

The Messianic claims of lordship over the sabbath is followed
immediately in all three Synoptic Gospels by the sabbath-day
healing of the man with the withered hand. The collocation of this
story at this juncture seems to serve as the climactic demonstration
of how Jesus exerted his lordship over the sabbath, namely, by
offering on that day Messianic healing and restoration.
your ass may have rest and the son of your bondmaid and the alien may be
refreshed." Cf. also Exod 20:10; Deut 5:14, 15. Niels-Erik Andreasen aptly comments:
"The landlord must be concerned with the human value of his subjects, just as
Yahweh was when he secured freedom for his people" ("Festival and Freedom," Int
28 [1974]: 289). Cf. Hans Walter Wolff, "The Day of Rest in the Old Testament,"
CTM 43 (1972): 504.
"Barth, p. 83, comments: "The saying 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice' thus
means here in the first place that God himself is the merciful one, the gracious one,
and the Sabbath commandment should therefore be looked upon from the point of
view of his kindness."
"The logion is examined at length in my From Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 55-61.
Matthew omits the scenic details given by Mark, such as the

watching of the people and the "anger" of Jesus, in order to focus
more sharply on the significance of the healing. In Matthew, the
Pharisees voice the question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
(12:10). Jesus replies by two piercing questions, followed by a con-
clusion. The questions are: "What man of you, if he has one sheep
and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift
it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?" (12:11-
12a). The conclusion is: "So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath"
(12:12b). The form of the question ("What man . . . ?") suggests
that Jesus is appealing, not to a rabbinical rule, but to a natural
human response and practice.56
The type of argument employed by Jesus was commonly used
by Rabbis and known as "light and heavy" (qal we-homer), the
equivalent of our a fortiori^1 If a sheep can be rescued on the sab-
bath, then surely a man! But this argument does not speak directly
to the question raised over the legitimacy of healing in general on
the sabbath, particularly of a chronically ill person, like the case in
question. Rescuing an animal in urgent need hardly seems to pro-
vide the basis to infer a principle about healing sick persons in
general on the sabbath. And thus, this answer was not designed to
provide the basis for such a broad principle, which, if it were to be
implemented literally, would reduce sabbathkeeping primarily to
ministry to the sick, thus making impossible any organized form of
church or synagogue life. Indeed, Christ's answer avoids such a
restrictive view of the sabbath by substituting for the verb "to heal"
(therapeuein) the expression "to do good" (kalos poiein).
This change in terminology suggests that the example of res-
cuing an animal serves, not to answer specifically the question
about the legitimacy of healing on the sabbath, but to illustrate the
general principle of doing good on such a day. The human con-
cern exemplified by the rescuing of a sheep even on the sabbath
points to the greater "value" God attaches to a human being. Such
a value (cf. the primacy of mercy in vs. 7) is shown by Jesus' act of
restoring the man to wholeness. The healing done by Jesus on the
56Cf. T. W. Manson, p. 481: "The question is addressed to men as men; and
ordinary humanity is expected to supply the answer."
"On the qal we-homer argument, see J. W. Doewe, Jewish Hermeneutics in the
Synoptic Gospels and Acts (Assen, 1954), pp. 106-110.
sabbath was intended, not to legitimize medical service as a prefer-

able form of sabbathkeeping, but to reveal his Messianic redemp-
tive mission.58 The rescuing of a sheep and the restoring of a
human being seem to function in the account as Messianic
indicators.
In this passage in Matthew, Jesus is not acting on the sabbath
as a professional physician, diagnosing diseases and prescribing
cures. Nor do the other Gospels present Jesus as healing on the
sabbath critically sick patients, emergency cases. In the case of the
man with the withered hand, as well as in each and all of the seven
sabbath healings reported in the Gospels, it is never a question of
help given to a sick person in an emergency, but always to chroni-
cally ill persons. These miraculous sabbath healings on behalf of
persons with incurable diseases seem to serve as demonstration of
the Messianic fulfillment of Jesus' ministry. The pericope of the
healing of the man with the withered hand, writes Carson, "pic-
tures Jesus performing a messianic healing on that day. This, then,
agrees with Matthew's fulfillment motifs. The gospel rest to which
the Sabbath had always pointed was now dawning." 59
The Messianic nature of Jesus' sabbath healings is reflected in
other pericopes, such as the one about the healing of the crippled
woman, given in Luke 13:10-17. As in Matthew, Jesus in Luke
argues a minori ad mains, i.e., from a minor to a greater case.
Building upon the practice of untying an animal on the sabbath,
he draws the conclusion, "And ought not this woman, a daughter
of Abraham whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, be loosed
from this bond on the sabbath day?" (vs. 16). The imagery of loos-
ing a victim bound by Satan's bonds recalls Christ's announcement
of his mission "to proclaim release to the captives" (Luke 4:18)—a
delightful imagery of the sabbatical year found in Isa 61:1-3 (and
58:6).
4. Conclusion
The conclusion that emerges from this study is that in the
Matthean setting the "rest" offered by Jesus (11:28-30) represents
58Cf. Sabourin, p. 640, n. 51.

59Carson, p. 75.
the fulfillment of the Messianic rest typified by the sabbath. We

have found that the two sabbath pericopes which Matthew links
structurally and temporally to the logion about the "rest" seem to
provide the theological interpretation of the nature of such "rest."
The first episode (plucking off ears of corn) seems to qualify the
promised "rest" as Messianic redemption through its references to
mercy and to sabbath services performed by priests in the Temple.
The second pericope (man with a withered hand) seems to interpret
the "rest" as Messianic restoration through the examples of rescu-
ing a sheep and restoring the sick man to health.
Was the Sabbath Still Observed?

In the light of this conclusion we may ask, Did Matthew and
his community view the sabbath day itself as no longer to be
observed because Jesus had fulfilled its Messianic typology; or was
it still to be observed, but in the light of its Messianic fulfillment?
The fact of its continued observance is presupposed in several
additions in the text of Matthew as compared with Mark. For
example, in 12:1 MattHew adds the phrase "his disciples were
hungry" (epeinasan). The Evangelist's concern to explain by means
of this insertion that the disciples did not carelessly break the
sabbath suggests that, as Gerhard Earth writes, "in Matthew's
congregation the Sabbath was still kept, but not in the same strict
sense as in the Rabbinate."60
Similarly, Matthew's insertion of the saying about the rescuing
of a sheep (12:11), which functions as a basis for the positive
principle of sabbath behavior ("so it is lawful to do good on the
sabbath," 12:12), presupposes that the congregation observed the
sabbath—though with a new perspective, namely, as a time to
show "mercy" (12:7) and "to do good" (12:12). The latter, as
Montefiore acknowledges, "would have been much too wide an
extension or application of the Rabbinic principle for the Rabbis
to have accepted." 61
Another indication of sabbathkeeping is found in Matt 24:20,
where the sabbath is mentioned, not polemically, but incidentally
6°Barth, p. 81; cf. also pp. 79, 83, 163, 244.

61 Montefiore, Rabbinic Literature, p. 243.
as an element unfavorable to a flight of Christians from Jeru-

salem. 62 The fact that Matthew includes the phrase "neither on a
Sabbath" (mede sabbato), which is omitted in Mark 13:18, "is suffi-
cient proof of the high regard in which they [the Matthean com-
munity] held the Sabbath."63
How Was the Sabbath Observed?

How was the sabbath observed by the Matthean community?
The expression used by Matthew, "he entered their synagogue"
(ten sunagogen auton, 12:9; Mark and Luke have "the synagogue"),
suggests that his Christian community no longer shared in the
sabbath service at the Jewish synagogue. Presumably they had by
then organized their own meeting places of worship. The distinc-
tion in sabbathkeeping between the Matthean and Jewish com-
munities appears to have been not only topological but also
theological. The two sabbath pericopes of Matt 12:1-14 which we
have examined seem to reflect the existence of an ongoing contro-
versy between the Christian congregation and the nearby Jewish
synagogue. Basically, the controversy centered on the nature of
sabbathkeeping. Was the day to be observed primarily as "sacri-
fice," that is, as an outward fulfillment of the sabbath law? Or was
the sabbath to be observed as "mercy," that is, as an occasion to
show compassion and "to do good" to those in need?
Matthew's positive humanitarian interpretation of sabbath-
keeping is, it appears, in an understanding of how Christ fulfilled
the Messianic typology of the sabbath rest. Viewing the "rest"
offered by Christ's redemptive mission as the fulfillment of the
Messianic rest typified by the OT sabbath, Matthew does not do
away with the literal observance of the day, but rather heightens
and broadens its meaning by interpreting sabbathkeeping as utiliz-
ing the sabbath day to celebrate and experience the Messianic
redemption-rest by showing "mercy" and doing "good" to those in
need.
62See my analysis of the text in From Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 69-71.

"Rordorf, p. 120. Cf. E. Lohse, "Sabbaton," TDNT, 7:29—"Matt. 24:20 offers
an example of the keeping of the Sabbath by Jewish Christians."
EXCURSUS: ORIGIN AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE LOGION
The question of the authenticity of the logion of Matt 11:28-30 is to

some extent interrelated to that of its origin. A popular view traces its
origin to the wisdom literature, especially the book of Sirach (written
ca. 200 B.C.), which offers the closest parallel to our passage: 64
Turn in unto me, ye unlearned,

And lodge in my house of instruction . . .
Acquire Wisdom for yourselves without money.
Bring your necks under her yoke,
And her burden let your soul bear; She is nigh unto them that seek her,
And he that is intent (upon her) findeth her.
Behold with your eyes that I labored but (little) therein,
And abundance of peace have found (51:23, 25-27).65
The striking similarity between this passage and Matt 11:28-30 has
caused some to conclude that Matthew has created the logion by drawing
from Sirach or from a lost wisdom writing which both Sirach and
Matthew presumably utilized as their source. 66 The most influential com-
parative analysis of the literary composition of both texts was done by
Eduard Norden in the concluding section of his famous book Agnostos
Theos, first published in 1913. Norden shows that Sir 51:1-11 begins with
a prayer of thanksgiving like Matt ll:25-26.67 It continues by describing
how God gave wisdom to Ben Sirach (51:13-22), comparable to Matt 11:27,
where Jesus says "All things have been delivered to me by my Father."
Then it closes with an appeal to the ignorant of Wisdom (51:23-27),
somewhat similar to the appeal found in Matt 11:28-30.
64 For a good defense of this view, see M. Jack Suggs, Wisdom, Christology and
Law in Matthew's Gospel (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), pp. 99-108; cf. H. D. Betz,
pp. 10-24.
<*APOT, 1:516-517.
66 Rudolf Bultmann holds that "Matt. 11:28-30 is a quotation from Jewish
Wisdom Literature put into the mouth of Jesus," yet he sees "no compelling reason
for denying it to him [i.e., Christ]" (The History of the Synoptic Tradition [New
York, 1963], p. 160).
"Eduard Norden, Agnostos Theos. Untersuchungen zur Formengeschichte
religioser Rede (Leipzig & Berlin, 1913; with further printings). For the following
discussion of Norden's views, see pp. 277-308.
The presence of these similarities, as well as of certain divergencies,

led Norden to conclude that both Matthew and Sirach are dependent upon
an existing tripartite literary schema which he calls Redetypen, consisting
of (1) thanksgiving for revelation; (2) transmission of wisdom (gnosis);
(3) invitation and appeal. To support this literary historical model, Norden
adduces examples where variants of this basic pattern are found, namely,
Sir 24; Odes of Solomon 12 and 33; Poimandres, Corpus Hermeticum 1:31
and 10:15; and in the NT, Rom 11. He believes this type of discourse
derives from the "mystical-theosophical literature of the Orient," which
after a long historical evolution would have reached and influenced primi-
tive Christian literature. Thus, in Norden's view, Matt 11:25-30, often
called "The Hymn of Thanksgiving," derives from a mystical treatise
which the author of Q (the source used by Matthew) would have placed in
the mouth of the historical Jesus at a time when the exaltation of his
person had been accomplished. The logical conclusion of Norden, then, is
that Matt 11:25-30 constitutes a literary unit which was already found in
Q, but which is not genuine because Jesus could not have utilized "forms
and ideas of theosophical mysticism."
Norden's methodology and conclusions are open to serious questions
which I can touch upon only briefly here. For example, is it not arbitrary
to argue for the original unity of our passage and against its genuineness
on the basis of its alleged dependence on an existing literary model and
ideology? First of all, the existence of a Redetype is not self-evident even
in Sir 51. David Hill, for example, maintains that "Sir. 51 did not origi-
nally form a unity; it is a thanksgiving-hymn to which an alphabetical
acrostic was attached." 68 Second, if the entire passage (Matt 11:25-30) con-
stituted a literary unit in the Q source used by Matthew, why then did
Luke (10:21-22) omit the latter part (vss. 28-30), which deals with the easy
yoke and rest? The immediate context in Luke (the return of the Seventy,
Luke 10:17-20) hardly seems to justify such an omission. Third, can
genuineness be legitimately questioned or denied on account of literary
similarity? Alexander B. Bruce perceptively queries that if Ben Sirach
ended his prayer by inviting fellowmen "to share the benefits which oocpia
has conferred on himself," why could not "Jesus of Nazareth close His
prayer with a similar address?"69 Fourth, the contrast between Sir 51:23-27
and Matt 11:28-29 is perhaps more important than their similarity. Ben
Sirach invites the unlearned to himself, saying: "Bring your necks under
her yoke . . . Behold ... I have labored but (little) therein and abundance
68Hill, Gospel of Matthew, p. 204.

69A. B. Bruce, The Synoptic Gospels, The Expositor's Greek Testament (Grand
Rapids, Mich., 1942), p. 1979. Similarly T. W. Manson, p. 478, notes, "If the author
of Ecclesiasticus could think of such words, so might Jesus."
of peace have I found" (vss. 26-27). Here the sophos, the scholar of the law,
counsels men to accept the yoke of law, as indicated by his reference to the
"house of instruction" in vs. 23 (an obvious reference to the Beth ha-
Midrash, the school of the Law). Unlike Ben Sirach, however, Christ in
Matt 11:28-29 has not learned the secret of rest at the school of the Law,
but claims to possess it in himself ("I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you"). It appears, as noted by T. W. Manson, that "Jesus claims to
do for men what the Law claimed to do; but in a different way." 70 These
conceptual differences discredit the view that Matt 11:28-30 derives directly
from wisdom literature, such as the book of Sirach.
Other theories have been adduced to explain the origin of our peri-
cope. Eduard Meyer believes that Matt 11:25-30 is a unified "hymn"
created by the primitive church to express the yearning for salvation and
peace, for direct communion with the supernatural world of the divine. 71 A
somewhat similar view is expressed by Tomas Arvedson in his Das
Mysterium Christi. He regards the whole passage as a liturgical hymn
produced by certain mystical elements within Christianity in order to
invite believers to the celebration of the mysteries. 72 The hymn consists of
two parts: (1) the "hymn of thanksgiving" (vss. 25-27), presumably com-
posed in Hellenistic religious language; and (2) an "invitation to take part
in the mystery" (vss. 28-30), written in typical wisdom speech. 73
Martin Dibelius sees the saying as being derived from the kind of Hel-
lenistic piety which emphasizes revelation through the sons of the gods.
He finds support for his view in the emphasis which the passage places
upon "gnosis," upon the person of Christ as revealer, and upon salvation
as "rest." 74 Dibelius argues that the "combination of self-recommendation
and of the preaching of conversion is the typical mark of the divine or
semi-divine herald of revelation in Hellenistic religiousness, i.e., of a
mythological person." 75 Therefore, the Sitz im Leben of the pericope is to
be sought, he concludes, not in the historical teaching of Jesus, but rather
in certain Christian circles which transformed Christ's message of repen-
tance and judgment into a kind of redemption-mystery revelation. 76
70T. W. Manson, p. 478.

"Eduard Meyer, Ursprung und Anfdnge des Christentums (Stuttgart and Berlin,
1921), pp. 289-290.
"Arvedson, p. 108.
"Ibid., p. 79.
"Martin Dibelius, From Tradition to Gospel (New York, 1965), pp. 279-282.
"Ibid., p. 281.
76Ibid., p. 282.
The presence of conceptual and terminological similarity between

Matt 11:25-30 and some Qumran texts has led other scholars, such as
H. Braun and W. D. Davies, to argue for a purely Jewish background of
the pericope. 77 Referring to Matt 11:25-30, Davies writes: "They probably
emerge from a milieu in which Judaism had been invaded by Hellenistic
terminology which had not, however, modified its essential nature." 78
Hans Dieter Betz objects to the attempt to trace the origin of the saying
exclusively to either Jewish or Hellenistic religious thought, maintaining
instead that "the pericope belongs within hellenistic-Jewish syncretism." 79
The existence of an almost literal parallel to Matt 11:28-30 in gnostic texts,
such as logion 90 of the Gospel of Thomas and chap. 95 of Pistis Sophia,
leads Betz to conclude that the saying derives from an independent wisdom
tradition from which both Matthew and the gnostic texts have borrowed. 80
No attempts can be made in this short excursus to evaluate each of the
above-mentioned theories, but a few general observations are in order.
First of all, one notices that although the explanations given for the gene-
sis of the form and/or content of the saying under consideration differ
considerably, there is substantial agreement in viewing the logion as
being, not a genuine pronouncement of Christ, but rather a creation of the
community or of Matthew. Methodologically, it seems rather arbitrary,
however, to hold that the historical Christ in principle could not have
uttered this logion and could not have utilized some concepts of the wis-
dom literature to clarify the nature of his mission. "If the primitive com-
munity," Lino Randellini points out, "allegedly made use of wisdom and
apocalyptic literature to express her faith in the work of Christ, why could
not Christ have done something similar?" 81
Moreover, we may ask, Is it conceivable that Matthew or the primitive
community invented this saying with the help of Jewish wisdom literature
or Hellenistic religious thought? It is important to recognize, as noted by
F. Burkitt, that "it is not so easy to make new sayings and new parables
like those in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; at least that kind of speech
does not make itself heard in the extant remains of what the first four
"See H. Braun, "Qumran und das Neue Testament," TRev 28 (1962): 119-121;
and W. D. Davies, "'Knowledge' in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Matthew 11:25-30,"
HTR 46 (1953): 113-139.
78W. D. Davies, Christian Origins and Judaism (London, 1962), p. 144.
79H. D. Betz, p. 19.
»°Ibid., pp. 19-20.
81 Randellini, p. 215.
generations of Christians wrote."82 This recognition is not in conflict with

William Manson's observation that "form may be bestowed or imposed on
words or traditions which have originated in some quite other milieu than
that which finally stamps them." 8* At the same time, as Manson also
remarks, it is possible "to hold with Harnack that these logia originated
on the lips of Jesus and reveal his authentic claim to offer men in his
teaching a saving knowledge of God." 84
A common argument against the genuineness of Matt 11:28-30 is its
supposed absence in Q, since Luke omits it. This argument was especially
popular thirty or forty years ago, when any Synoptic text which could not
be traced to the Two-Document theory was inevitably regarded as suspi-
cious. "That this was a dangerous assumption we now realize," writes
A. M. Hunter. "For, on this reasoning, about half of Christ's parables,
including many of his greatest, would at once be branded with a reputa-
tion of dubious historicity; which is plainly absurd." 85
Whether or not Matt 11:28-30 stood in Q should not be the factor
determining the genuineness of the logion. We have no criteria for estab-
lishing whether Q was any more or less authentic than other existing
sources Matthew may have used. In fact, there are still unanswered ques-
tions regarding the origin, development and Greek translation of Q. If one
wishes to express a judgment on the authenticity of the logion in question,
it is perhaps preferable to give greater attention to its linguistic and con-
ceptual characteristics. Several scholars argue in favor of the authenticity
of the passage on the basis of Semitic originals glimmering through the
Greek text. T. W. Manson, for example, notes that "the passage is full of
Semitic turns of phrase" and is "certainly Palestinian in origin." 86 Arnold
Meyer discerns a Semitic word-play in the text which speaks for authen-
ticity. 87 R. H. Gundry sees in the logion allusions to Jer 31:25 and 6:16,
and to Exod 33:14, which lead him to conclude: "Although this pericope
may reflect a stereotyped form of speech used by Oriental teachers, the
saturation in OT language and thought and the paronomasia in the
82F. Crawford Burkitt, The Gospel History and Its Transmission (Edinburgh,
1907), p. 199; cf. Plummer, p. 169.
83William Manson, p. 75. As a case in point, cf. Matt 11:25-30 with Luke
10:21-23.
"William Manson, p. 75.
85Hunter, p. 247.
86T. W. Manson, p. 371.
"Arnold Meyer, Jesu Muttersprache (Freiburg, 1896), p. 84; cf. Matthew Black,
An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Oxford, 1946), p. 140.
Aramaic speak for authenticity."88 Wilfred L. Knox also concludes that

"the whole structure of the sentences is Semitic"; thus, he says that if we
reject the saying as an authentic utterance of Jesus, "it must be on the
grounds of our general attitude to the person of Jesus, not on the ground
that its form or language is 'hellenistic' in any intelligible sense." 89
The content of the saying also has a ring of authenticity, since it har-
monizes with OT thought and with the tradition of Jesus' teachings and
person. For example, the promise of "rest" (anapausis) to those "who
labor and are heavy laden" is consonant, as we have seen in our earlier
discussion, both with the expectation of Messianic "rest" and with the
attitude of One who rebukes Scribes and Pharisees for loading people with
"heavy burdens, hard to bear" (Matt 23:4; Luke 11:46). Similarly, as Hunter
points out, "the self-description, 'I am gentle and lowly in heart' echoes
the description of the Servant in Isaiah 42:2f. and 53:lf. and is apparently
confirmed in 2 Corinthians 10:1 where Paul appeals to 'the meekness and
gentleness of Christ' as to something familiar and well known." 90
Indications such as the foregoing have led a number of scholars
recently to view this logion as being substantially a genuine utterance of
Christ.91 This is also my own position.
""Robert Horton Gundry, The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthew's
Gospel (Leiden, 1967), p. 136.
"Wilfred L. Knox, Some Hellenistic Elements in Primitive Christianity
(London, 1944), p. 7. The same view is expressed by Quell/Schrenk, p. 993, n. 289.
""Hunter, p. 248.
91 Among those who regard the logion as being essentially an authentic saying
of Jesus are Hill, Gospel of Matthew, p. 207 ("By reason of its form and content,
this logion is usually, and rightly, regarded as substantially genuine"); M. V.
Lagrange, Evangile selon S. Matthieu (Paris, 1948), pp. 226-231; J. Dupont, Gnosis.
La connaissance religieuse dans les epilres de saint Paul (Paris, 1949), pp. 58-61;
L. Cerfaux, "Les sources scrituraires de Mt. 11:25-30," in Recueil Lucien Cerjaux
(Gembloux, 1962), pp. 139-159; Jeremias, Abba; and Cullmann, pp. 286-287. Fohrer
Wilckens, "Sophia," TDNT, 7: 516, n. 356, lists the following among supporters of
the authenticity of the saying: W. Grundmann, J. Bieneck, E. Stauffer, and C. H.
Dodd. See also nn. 85-90, above.
AN OVERLOOKED OLD-TESTAMENT BACKGROUND

TO REVELATION 11:1
KENNETH A. STRAND
Andrews University
Rev 11:1 introduces a vision in which the prophet himself is

given "a reed like a rod" and told to "measure the temple of God,
and the altar, and those who worship in it." The next verse con-
tinues the instruction, stating that the prophet is to "throw out and
not measure" (fhcpaXe 2£a>0ev Kai \ir\ . . . ueTpTJcfnq) the court out-
side the temple, "because it was given to the Gentiles/nations [tot£
SGvecnv]." The passage continues in vs. 2b with what is evidently
in apposition to the outer court's being given to the Gentiles:
namely, that the Holy City would be trodden by them for forty-two
months. In short, then, the temple, altar, and worshippers are to be
measured; the outer court/Holy City is not to be measured.
Exegetes of the book of Revelation have naturally sought for
the background to this "measuring" imagery. The two passages
generally called to attention as furnishing such background are
Zech 2:1-5 and Ezek 40-48. The fact that these two passages refer to
a "measuring line" (Zech 2:1) or "measuring reed" (Ezek 40:3) pro-
vides a common element with Rev 11:1, and in this particular
respect these OT passages do indeed serve as background to the
vision in the Apocalypse. But the commonality goes relatively little
beyond this, and there are also some striking contrasts, as we shall
notice below.
1. Two Fundamental Considerations

Before we proceed to inquire further into the OT backgrounds
to Rev 11:1, two fundamental considerations with regard to the
Apocalypse's own use of symbolism should be noticed. The first,
which may be called (for lack of a better term) the "universalized
spiritual dimension," is an approach that is common to the NT.
The second, a "blending" or "merging" of images, is a phe-
nomenon that is more restricted to the book of Revelation itself,
317
318 KENNETH A. STRAND
though closely akin in nature and purpose to the "universalized

spiritual dimension," as we shall see.
The "Universalized Spiritual Dimension"

In harmony with the NT perspective in general, Revelation
universalizes in such a way that OT events of local or limited char-
acter become symbols of spiritual realities and developments on a
cosmic scale. For instance, just as the NT "Israel" refers to the
Christian church (in a universal sense, not localized to any specific
geographical region), 1 so too the "Babylon" symbol of Revelation
is used in a broader-than-local way to depict forces opposed to God
and to his people. The principle involved in this sort of usage is,
moreover, one that is of quite general application to other symbols
used throughout the Apocalypse.
It must be added, however, that the drama portrayed in the
book of Revelation is nonetheless played out in more than simply
spiritual terms, for the spiritual panorama relates directly to, and
embraces concretely, specific realities in the historical arena. That
is to say, real people are very much involved in real struggles as
they choose either loyalty to God and the Lamb or to the anti-
divine forces.
The "Blending" or "Merging" of Images

Closely related in function to this "universalizing spiritual
dimension" of the symbolisms used in Revelation is the second
basic phenomenon, the "blending" or "merging" of images. 2 Fre-
quently, if not generally, the symbols used in the book of Revela-
tion are drawn from multiple sources, most of which are different
OT passages. For instance, the trumpets septet and the vials septet
both draw upon the plagues on ancient Egypt and the fall of
Babylon for their background imagery, the first five items in each
'See the excellent discussion in Hans K. LaRondelle, The Israel of God in

Prophecy: Principles of Prophetic Interpretation (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1983),
pp. 98-146.
2The term "rebirth of images" is also a somewhat useful one, but not really
adequate to describe the dynamic involved in the symbols occurring in the book of
Revelation. The term is one used by Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images: The
Making of St. John's Apocalypse (Gloucester, Mass., 1970); but despite its value as a
concept, Farrer's own manner of utilizing the principle seems at times questionable.
AN OVERLOOKED BACKGROUND TO REV 11:1 319
series being patterned after the Egyptian plagues and the sixth item
suddenly transferring the scene to the Euphrates (9:14 and 16:12),
the river on which ancient Babylon was situated.3 Likewise, the
"Battle-of-Armageddon" imagery of Rev 16:12-14 utilizes as back-
ground both Elijah's victory on Mt. Carmel and the "drying up of
the Euphrates" connected with the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.4 One
further, and particularly intriguing, example of this sort of multiple
background images may be mentioned here—Rev 11:8, wherein
"the great city" (elsewhere in Revelation designated as "Babylon")
is identified with three entities—Sodom, Egypt, and the Jerusalem
that crucified Christ.5
This sort of "blending" or "merging" of images illustrates an
ontological perspective that brings together elements that are "of
a kind." 6 This "blending" or "merging" provides a heightened
"composite" image of the transcendental and universalized realities
being depicted, thus functioning to bring to view in an augmented
way the "universalized spiritual dimension" mentioned in the
preceding paragraphs. Indeed, the very multiplicity of the back-
ground images suggests, too, that the new image transcends the
background entities or events, both individually and collectively
(though, of course, the new image is also of a character with those
background images).
'For a diagram detailing more fully this "Exodus-from-Egypt"/"Fall-of-

Babylon" motif, see Kenneth A. Strand, "The Two Witnesses of Rev 11:3-12," AUSS
19(1981): 129.
4This fact has been set forth convincingly by William H. Shea, "The Location
and Significance of Armageddon in Rev 16:16," AUSS 18 (1980): 157-162.
5Cf. the useful discussion in Paul S. Minear, / Saw a New Earth (Washington,
D.C., 1968), pp. 102-103. Minear suggests the possible addition also of Rome; but
the text does not, of course, explicitly mention Rome.
6This has been referred to as a "trans-historical model" by Paul S. Minear, who
further points out that it "is a comprehensive rather than a disjunctive mode of
seeing and thinking. It apprehends events in terms of their inner structure as
responses to God's action. . . . Behind this mode of viewing was a distinctive
ontological stance, to which we should give more attention than we usually do."
Minear, "Ontology and Ecclesiology in the Apocalypse," NTS 12 (1965/66): 96. The
immediate context of Minear's statements here is another, earlier discussion of Rev
11:8 (cf. the citation in n. 5, above); and notice should be taken of his full treatment
of this text in this article, beginning on p. 94.
2. Analysis of the Passages in Zechariah and Ezekiel

We now turn our attention briefly to the traditionally sug-
gested OT backgrounds to Rev 11:1—namely, Zech 2:1-5 and Ezek
40-48. In our analysis, it will be important to keep in mind that in
Revelation the items which John is instructed to measure are the
temple, the altar, and the worshippers, and that he is further
instructed not to measure the outer court (equated with the "Holy
City").
Zechariah 2:1-5
The passage in Zech 2:1-5 makes no mention whatever of the
temple, altar, and worshippers. Instead, the vision refers to a man
going forth with a measuring line to measure "Jerusalem" (vss. 1-2).
This is, of course, in striking contrast to the instructions given in
Rev 11:1-2.
But the contrast goes even further. In the vision of Zechariah,
an angel is sent forth to tell the man with the measuring line that
"Jerusalem will be a city without walls" and that God himself will
be "a wall of fire surrounding her" and "her glory within"
(vss. 3-5). Thus, there was to be no measuring after all (if there
were no physical walls, how could measurement be taken to deter-
mine the width and length [vs. 2]?). Rather, the entire scene consti-
tutes a dramatic way of portraying God's care and protection.
Ezekiel 40-48
The passage embracing Ezek 40-48 furnishes a very detailed
account of measuring and of measurements. It begins with mea-
surement of the wall "around the outside of the temple area"
(Ezek 40:5), and proceeds to the outer court, its gateway facing east,
thirty chambers encircling the court, and then the north and south
gates belonging to the outer court (40:6-27). Next come the south,
east, and north gates of the inner court, with other appurtenances,
including two chambers for the priests (40:28-49). Then the temple
itself is measured (chaps. 41-42).
After an interruption in the narrative about the measuring
process (in order to portray God's glory entering the temple and to
give a message from Yahweh, 43:1-12), that narrative continues
with the giving of the dimensions of the altar of burnt offering
(43:13-17). And finally, in later chapters, there are other items mea-
sured; e.g., the river flowing eastward from the south side of the
temple (different depths being noted at 1000-cubit intervals) and
the environs and city outside the sacred precincts (47:1-5; 48:15-35).
Although the measuring in Ezekiel is somewhat parallel to the
instruction in Rev 11:1 in that the temple and altar are mentioned
in both passages, the Ezekiel vision gives dimensions for the outer
court and for the city—this in striking contrast to Rev 11:1-2. Also,
the very detail furnished in the Ezekiel account relative to these
items and to various appurtenances stands in marked contrast to
John's vision, as does the fact that elements untouched in the Reve-
lation reference are noted in Ezekiel (e.g., the river). Finally, the
Ezekiel passage says nothing about the measuring of worshippers—
one of the three basic items to be measured in Rev 11:1.
In addition to these contrasts with respect to the subject matter
of the two measuring processes, it should be noted that there is
evidence of difference in purpose, as well. Ezekiel's vision provides
a plan for construction of a temple complex and for the physical
laying out of the city and of tribal territories. John's vision, on the
other hand, entails some sort of measurement that embraces already-
existing entities—and certainly not in a physical sense (as is evi-
denced, e.g., by the inclusion of worshippers and by the very nature
of the entire interlude within which the verse occurs [10:1-11:13]). 7
And thus, in sum total, Ezek 40-48 stands more in contrast to, than
in parallel with, Rev 11:1.
Summary
The one and only common element to all three passages that
we have been considering—in Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Revelation—
is the "measuring line" or "measuring reed." With the exception
of this specific symbol, Zech 2:1-5 manifests an absolute contrast to
Rev 11:1; and Ezek 40-48 is so overwhelmingly divergent from the
latter text that it, too, can hardly be considered as a basic back-
ground to John's vision.
'The vision of Ezekiel has closer affinity to the giving of measurements and
other details for building the sanctuary in the wilderness, as presented in Exod
25-40. Rev 11:1 would seem more akin, in basic thrust at least, to the "plumb-
line" vision of Amos 7:7-8, wherein there is evaluation of people —in this case,
on the analogy of "a wall that is out of line."
3. An Overlooked Old-Testament Background

to Revelation 11:1
Is there any other OT background to the symbolism of
Rev 11:1—a passage which embraces some sort of "measuring" of,
specifically, the temple, altar, and worshippers? Indeed there is
such: Leviticus 16, which describes the ancient Israelite "Day of
Atonement" that closed the cultic year.
In that chapter, there are four basic entities noted as having
atonement made for them—the priests themselves, the sanctuary,
the altar, and the congregation (see vss. 6, 11, 16-18). The priest-
hood would obviously be omitted in any NT parallel, for Christ as
High Priest—"holy, blameless, unstained, set apart from sinners"
(Heb 7:26)—would need no atonement for himself. It is striking,
then, that the three other exact entities to be atoned for in Leviti-
cus 16 are precisely those three elements to be "measured" in
Rev 11:1.
A commonality in the order or sequence of the three items is
also noteworthy. In both cases, the movement is from sanctuary/
temple to altar to worshippers.8
The ancient Day of Atonement was a sort of final day of
"measuring" within the Israelite cultic year. It had an aura of final
judgment about it, for on that day separation was to take place:
The people were to "afflict" themselves, and "whoever is not
afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people"
(Lev 23:27-28, RSV).
The parallel in Rev 11:1 certainly embraces, too, a "measur-
ing" in the spiritual, rather than physical, sense. This is obvious
from the context, wherein the "temple" and "altar" refer to
heavenly entities, not a physical temple in the city of Jerusalem (cf.
the general use of temple imagery in Revelation, as e.g., in 4-5,
•The atonement process moved from the inner recesses of the sanctuary to the
altar, with the effect ultimately for the congregation—and also with the final act
itself (the "live-goat" or "scapegoat" ceremony) being performed for the congrega-
tion (Lev 16:17-22).
8:3-5, 11:19, etc.)-9 And the "measuring" of worshippers is itself

terminology that has spiritual, not physical, implications. 10
4. Conclusion
In summary, the exegetes and commentators tend to look upon
Zech 2:1-5 and Ezek 40-48 as the basic OT background sources for
Rev 11:1. Indeed, there is a commonality in the "measuring-line"
or "measuring-reed" symbolism used in the three passages. But
aside from this, the text in the book of Revelation is more distanced
'At this juncture, it may be pertinent to point out that the question of which
altar—altar of burnt offering or altar of incense—is intended in Rev 11:1 is not
really important for us. The text itself does not make the distinction; but in the OT
backgrounds, both altars were involved in the procedures on the Day of Atonement
(compare Exod 30:10 with Leviticus 16). So also in the introductory setting for the
Trumpets septet in the Apocalypse (within which Rev 11:1 falls as part of an
"interlude"), both altars (in a heavenly setting) come to view (8:3-5). What is
important to notice is that in literary dependence and conceptualization, the
parallel between Rev 11:1 and Leviticus 16 is exact (given, of course, the logical
omission of the priesthood in the Apocalypse reference). Whichever altar is intended
in Rev 11:1, the parallel exists as to terminology.
So also, it is not necessary for our purposes to speculate concerning the precise
meaning of "outer court" in Rev 11:1—whether the symbolism is based on the
"Court of the Gentiles" of Herod's Temple (a somewhat'logical deduction in view
of the statement in the following verse), the "outer court" in Ezekiel's Temple
Vision, or simply the "outer court" of the ancient sanctuary in the wilderness. In
fact, it could well be that this symbol as used in Rev 11:1 represents a "blending" or
"merging" of images—akin to what I have pointed out in the first section of this
article as a common practice in the Apocalypse. The same is possibly true too, of
course, with respect to the symbol of "altar."
10 It may be of interest to note that the same basic Greek word used for the
measuring process in Rev 11:1 (here the imperative form, in the command ueTpr|aov
tdv vadv TOO Geou, "measure the temple of God") occurs also in 2 Cor 10:12, in a
statement about certain Corinthian church members who were "measuring [or,
evaluating] themselves by themselves" (tv eautoic; eauToix; HETPOUVTEI;). In fact, there
is somewhat of a play on the "measuring" concept in the following verses (cf.
ueipov TOU Kctvovoc, and 6 6e6c, utTpou in vs. 13, and T<X dîetpa in vss. 13 and 15).
A possible OT parallel for this general type of usage may be found in
2 Sam 8:2, where the Moabites who had been defeated by King David were "mea-
sured" into two groups—those to be put to death and those whose lives were to be
spared. (The LXX reads that David 5ieu£ipr|aev ailtoOc; ev axowioic, Koijjioai;
a\5toCi<; 4nl tr^v yf\v, KOI eyeveto TCI 50o axoivianaTCt too GavatSaai, Kai id 8i3o
from, than near to, those suggested OT root sources. There is,
however, another OT passage that stands in striking parallel with
Rev 11:1—namely, Leviticus 16, the description of the ancient
Israelite Day of Atonement. With the exception of the omission of
the priesthood in Rev 11:1, the same three elements under review
are common to both passages: temple, altar, and worshippers. The
fact that that one particular omission is made is perfectly logical,
for Christ as NT High Priest would need no atonement (or
"measuring") made for himself.
It has been frequently suggested that the "measuring" instruc-
tion given to John indicates "protection," "preservation," "mak-
ing secure." 11 The basis for the deduction is at fault, however, for
the conclusion rests on the statement of Zech 2:5 that God will be
to Jerusalem "a wall of fire surrounding her." As we have noted
above, the Zechariah passage is strikingly in contrast to Rev 11:1
with respect to that which was to be measured by the man with the
measuring line, and also in that that man was not to do the measur-
ing after all, inasmuch as God himself would be the "wall of fire."
The implication of this entire passage in Zech 2:1-5 is therefore, as
R. H. Mounce has aptly pointed out, that Jerusalem "need not be
measured in order to erect walls because of the adequate protection
provided by God's presence." 12
That the reference in Rev 11:1 entails, in some sense, "protec-
tion" is not, however, a totally irrelevant concept, for certainly
"Commentators sometimes refer to "destruction" as another meaning of the

"measuring-line" symbol, though usually recognizing the inapplicability of that
concept to Rev 11:1. Such texts as 2 Kgs 21:13 and Lam 2:8 are cited in support of
this meaning, but a careful analysis of those references suggests that it is not the
destruction per se that is intended by the symbol, but rather a judgment that is to
result in the destruction (and/or to delineate the dimensions or extent of the
destruction). A pertinent OT reference that quite clearly embodies this same sort of
concept is 2 Sam 8:2, wherein is depicted a "measuring" of King David's Moabite
captives—with a view to putting some to death and to sparing the lives of others
(see the second paragraph of n. 10, above).
. J. Massyngberde Ford, Revelation, AB 38 (Garden City, N.Y., 1975), p. 176, has
noted several possible explanations of the "measuring" in Rev 11:1, mentioning
"destruction" as one of these. She also includes "rebuilding or restoring," and
divides "preservation" into two kinds—from physical harm and from spiritual
harm. She herself prefers the idea of "protection."
'2Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, NICNT (Grand Rapids, Midi.,
1977), p. 219, n. 3.
there is security for the true worshippers of God and the Lamb, as
related passages in the book of Revelation itself make clear. 13 But
the implications of the imagery in Rev 11:1 do not stop there. It is
necessary to look further—to the most explicitly related of the OT
background passages, Leviticus 16, and to the significance of that
passage—in order to obtain a more focused and comprehensive
understanding of what is entailed in the "measuring" process
specified in Rev 11:1. 14
"There is a paralleling literary pattern that links together in certain important

respects the so-called "interludes" in Rev 7, 10-11, and 14. This literary pattern has
been outlined in Kenneth A. Strand, Interpreting the Book of Revelation, 2d ed.
(Naples, Florida, 1979), p. 48. The element of "securing" is, of course, in view in the
"sealing" in Rev 7; but other motifs come also to view in Rev 14. I plan to give
attention to these "interludes" in a future study.
'The vision in Rev 11 is within what may be called the "historical series"
section of the book (cf. Strand, Interpreting, pp. 51, 52), but another "measuring"
portrayal occurs in Rev 21:15-17, in relationship to the eschatological eternal New
Jerusalem. It is of interest that in the former passage the measuring rod is like a reed
and the prophet is instructed to do the measuring, whereas in the latter passage the
measuring rod is of gold and the angel does the measuring. Also, it is the temple,
altar, and worshippers that are to be measured in Rev 11:1, with no dimensions
indicated; but it is the city and its walls that are measured in Rev 21:15-17, with the
dimensions stated. The scope of the present article precludes a discussion here of the
relationship between these two "measuring-rod" visions, but I hope in a later study
to treat this matter, as well as to elaborate on the connections among the "inter-
ludes" mentioned in n. 13, above.
THE HORN-MOTIFS OF THE BIBLE

AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
MARGIT L. SORING
Toivonlinna
SF-21500 Piikkio, Finland
Undoubtedly, horn-motifs in the Hebrew Bible have fre-

quently been too narrowly interpreted, and some of them have been
completely misunderstood. Exegetical conclusions have often been
based on the presupposition that the words "horn" and "horns,"
whenever they occur in the biblical text, must in some way be con-
nected with bulls or other animals. Inasmuch as bull-motifs are
prominent in the ancient Near East, there has been analogous
interpretation of many well-known biblical passages, resulting in
an attempt to level off any dissimilarities.
Investigation of the OT literature reveals that the word "horn"
does occur occasionally in a biological context and in such
instances has to be understood literally, but also that there are
many instances where the word "horn" occurs without any refer-
ence to a ram, a goat, a bull, or some other animal provided with
horns. How are references of the latter kind to be considered? What
is the meaning of "horn" in such cases?
References of this sort may actually be placed in several some-
what different categories. I would suggest the following groupings
of the material pertaining to "horns" in the biblical literature:
(1) Depiction of literal horns (such as on altars), without any sort
of explicit reference to their meaning; (2) depiction of horns, with
functional aspects or dimensions indicated in the context; and
(3) the use of the terms "horn" and "horns" in a purely metaphor-
ical sense.
327
328 MARGIT L. SURING
1. Horns Depicted Without Explicit

Reference to Their Meaning
Horns on A Itars
In the books of Exodus and Leviticus, there are several refer-
ences to the horns of the altar. Were these horns simply projections
or prolongations of the altar, or were they to be interpreted (as
some theologians have supposed) as originating from an animistic
concept? 1
Archaeological discoveries give support, not only to stone-
horned altars, but also to altars presenting a bull's head with
noticeable horns as part of the decor in relief (see figure 1, on
p. 329). As far as Syria is concerned (where the majority of such
stone altars have been found), the bull heads have been interpreted
as representing local gods.2 North Syrian seals with their bull-
motifs may give evidence of a probable Moloch-cult.3 Recently
scholars have, however, clearly refuted the earlier concept that the
horns of the altars originally were massebdt.* Unfortunately, many
standard works still present the previous, incorrect view. 6 As far as
the OT is concerned, my research has led me to conclude that the
horns of the altar there mentioned have no common ground with
the "bull-decorated" altars found in the neighborhood of Palestine.
Indeed, two independent strands seem to be here represented,
though with a possible original source in remote antiquity.
Beings Depicted with Horns
Another well-known motif in the ancient Near Eastern context
is that of beings (probably anthropomorphic gods) depicted with
'William E. Addis, "Altar," Encyclopaedia Biblica (London, 1899), 1:124.

2Kurt Galling, Der Altar in den Kulturen des Alien Orients (Berlin, 1925),
pp. 59-68.
3Margit L. Siiring, Horn-Motifs in the Hebrew Bible and Related Ancient Near
Eastern Literature and Iconography, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Disser-
tation Series, no. 4 (Berrien Springs, 1982), p. 284.
'Herman T. Obbink, "The Horns of the Altar . . . ," JBL 56 (1937): 45; Paul W.
Lapp, "The 1963 Excavation at Tacannek," BASOR, no. 173 (1964), pp. 35-37;
Carl F. Graesser, Studies in Massebot (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1969),
p. 298.
5So, for instance, Kurt Galling, "Altar II. In Israel," Die Religion in Geschichte
und Gegenwart, 3d ed. (Tubingen, 1957), pp. 253-255.
I
Figure 1. A variety of horned altars from Syria and Palestine. (Author's sketch, after depictions given 00
in the larger selection in Kurt Galling, Der Altar in den Kulturen des alien Orients [Berlin, IS
1925], plates 17-36.)
horns. Such depictions were already in evidence in prehistoric

times. According to several authorities in the field of ancient glyp-
tic, the headdresses with horns symbolize divinity.
To take a well-known example, the Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin
(ca. 2254-2218 B.C.) was depicted with horns to show his superior-
ity as ruler. The king assumed deification during his lifetime, an
act which was later regarded as presumptuously blasphemous.
Several kings of a later dynasty were also deified, but probably
posthumously.6
The kings of Akkad created a universal empire, comprising
what came to be called kissat matati, "the totality of the coun-
tries."7 It is important to note in this connection that the concept
of universality had its prototype and origin with the moon-cult.
The moon was visible everywhere and was thus a fitting symbol for
universality. (By way of contrast, national deities or city-gods were
restricted in several ways and were therefore easily superseded.) All
the astral gods in antiquity were important, but the moon-god was
considered to be the personified "father" of the astral family and
also the procreator of the universe.
Moreover, the moon-cult and the bull-cult were analogous in
many countries. The emblems of the moon-god, Sin, were the
crescent of the moon and the horns of the bull, which emblems
thus were synonymous in representing the same deity (see figure 2,
on p. 331).
The influence of idol-worshipping countries on Israel is clearly
revealed in the second half of the second millennium and in the
first millennium B.C. Some researchers have gone so far as to
propose Moses as a representative for a repressed Sin-cult, though
such a depiction of Moses with horns originates as late as with
Michelangelo and other medieval a'rtists. One of the prominent
views is that Moses was putting a cult-mask on his awe-inspiring
face and that this mask was provided with horns. In this view, the
*Jacob Klein, however, in his dissertation, Sulgi D: A Neo-Sumerian Royal

Hymn (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1968), passim, proposes a
theory that even such kings as Hammurabi were deified during their lifetime. But as
far as the present writer knows, there are no iconographical evidences which would
support such a theory.
'Hildegard Lewy, "Assyria, c. 2600-1816 B.C.," in Cambridge Ancient History,
3d ed. (1971), vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 735-738.
HORN-MOTIFS 331
Figure 2. Tiara of Nannar, with the "moon-crescent" emblem balanced

on the knob of the tiara. From the epoch of Ur-Nammu,
ca. 2113-2096 B.C. (Author's sketch, after depiction given by
L.-Hughes Vincent, "La representation divine orientale archa-
ique," in Melanges syriens offerts a monsieur Rene Dussaud. . . ,
1 [Paris, 1939]: 378, fig. 3.)
"horned" Moses is thus considered a vestige of a suppressed pagan

cult, which, however, had to yield in favor of the Yahweh cult that
from the time of the Sinai theophany asserted its dominance.8 At
Sinai, the Bull-cult and the Yahweh-cult were supposed to have
clashed.
Other scholars, in defending the "shining face of Moses," have
gone to another extreme by trying to draw analogies from mythol-
ogy.9 There are, of course, later examples that show how idol-
worshipping countries influenced the Yahweh concept. For in-
stance, the rude sketches on the pithoi (storage-jars) excavated at
Kuntillet Ajrud, not far from Sinai, present Yahweh with a bull-
face and horns on his head and in the act of dancing with his
consort, the cow-goddess Hathor. The Egyptian cow-goddess was
the patron deity at Sinai (see figure 3, on p. 333). 10 The picture of
the dancing gods from Kuntillet Ajrud and the more familiar
examples from the biblical literature (such as at Sinai, Baal-peor,
Bethel, and Dan) represent a perverted "God-pattern"; they fly in
the face of the normative pattern for worship in the OT.
It must be emphasized that the traditions of the Hebrew Bible
represent a completely different pattern from the cultural patterns
of the countries of the ancient Near East that surrounded little
Palestine. For instance, in the OT, Yahweh is never described as
wearing horns. Nor is Moses or any other of the biblical personali-
ties described in this way. 11 Furthermore, the masks of the oracle
priests are unknown cult items in Israel. As for the horns of the
altar, it may safely be concluded that there was no animate concept
attached to them. And finally, the crescent of the moon and the
horns of the bull are emblems unknown in cultic and religious
contexts in Israel; they had no connection as such with Yahweh
worship.
"Siiring, p. 29.
'Elmer G. Suhr, "The Horned Moses," Folklore 74 (1963): 387-395.
'"William H. Shea, "The Date and Significance of the Israelite Settlement at
Kuntillet Ajrud," a forthcoming article. For a reproduction of the crude drawing of
the "dancing gods," see ZeDev Meshel, "Did Yahweh Have a Consort?" BARev,
vol. 2, no. 2 (March/April, 1979), plate on p. 35.
"For an explanation of the misconception of Moses wearing horns, see Siiring,
pp. 24-30, 422-433.
HORN-MOTIFS 333
Figure 3. Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love, depicted under the

symbol of a cow and with the sun-disk enclosed between the
horns. From the XVIIIth Dynasty, ca. 1490 B.C. (Author's sketch,
after photograph in G. Hoyningen-Huene and George Steindorff
[responsible for photographs and text, respectively], Egypt [New
York, 1943], p. 94. The same photograph, in smaller size, appears
in the 2d rev. ed. [New York, 1945], p. 107.)
2. Horns Depicted, with Functional Aspects

Indicated in the Context
There are several OT passages which are not merely descrip-
tive of horns in the ways noted above, but which add reference to a
functional aspect or dimension. These references are mainly found
in cultic contexts. So, for instance, is the case in Exod 30:10, where
there is mention of "atonement" being made on the horns of the
altar of incense in the sanctuary. There are also references of
similar nature that have a political context; e.g., 1 Kgs 22:11, "And
Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron,
and said, 'Thus says the Lord, "With these you shall push the
Syrians until they are destroyed"'" (RSV). According to Othmar
Keel, the 16 in the context is not reflexive but should be interpreted
with the meaning "for him." In other words, Zedekiah made a cap
with iron horns, not for himself, but for the king. The horns
transformed the king, as ngh ("to gore") implies, into an invincible,
triumphant bull. 12
The verb ngh is used in ancient Near Eastern contexts, not
only literally of horned animals, but also metaphorically of kings.
In the ancient Near East, gods wearing "horned" helmets, crowns,
or caps are likewise occasionally referred to as bulls (wild oxen).
Since the time of Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.), depictions of kings
fighting with the wild ox (not with the domestic ox) appear also in
Assyrian inscriptions. Just as the wild ox was the symbol for fierce,
aggressive strength and power in attack, the domestic bull became
the symbol of fertility. At times, these two different traditions
merged, and the source of the original tradition was forgotten.
Mention may be made here of some ancient literary references
to kings or even to a whole people, wherein the epithet "bull" is
applied. For instance, Egyptian Pharaohs Thutmose HI and Seti II
are described as "invincible" and "a young bullock with horns,"
respectively. 13 And in the OT, Deut 33:17 provides a poetic passage
in which "firstling bull" with "horns of a wild ox" is a term
descriptive of "the ten thousands of Ephraim" and "the thousands
12Othmar Keel, Wirkmdchtige Siegeszeichen (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1974),

pp. 131-132.
"Siiring, p. 321.
HORN-MOTIFS 335
of Manasseh." The identification here is not simply of a king or

other leader, but rather of the Joseph tribes. Incidentally, in the
monarchy period, after the secession of the ten tribes from the
United Kingdom, "Ephraim" and "Israel" were terms used synony-
mously to describe the northern nation constituted by these ten
tribes.
A further example of this sort of "contextually explained"
reference to horns is in evidence in 1 Kgs 1:50-51 and 2:28, where
the importance of the horns of the altar may be seen in a social
context. When Adonijah feared death at the hand of Solomon, he
grasped "the horns of the altar"; and so too was the case with the
less-fortunate Joab.
3. "Horn" or "Horns" Used in a Purely

Metaphorical Sense
The category of OT texts wherein the term "horn" or "horns"
is used in a purely metaphorical way is also the category that
requires the most intensive study and careful application. This sort
of metaphorical use occurs in several kinds of literary portrayal,
such as hymnic texts, prophetic oracles, and apocalyptic vision.
Hymnic Texts
The hymnic texts, with their grand and lofty expressions,
make use of metaphors more often than any other genre of litera-
ture. It is in the context of such texts that we are especially
confronted with the horn-motif on a vertical level. Such is the case,
for instance, in the parallel texts 2 Sam 22:3 and Ps 18:2, wherein
God is referred to as "my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn
of my salvation, my stronghold" (RSV). It is apparent that the term
qrn ("horn") is explicitly combined with "salvation" in the locu-
tion qeren yis ci, "the horn of my salvation."
There are compelling reasons why the word qrn in these
passages should not be given the negative aggressive connotation
originating in the bull metaphor. Each epithet in the immediate
context paints a positive portrait of Yahweh. If we were to main-
tain the traditional (and incorrect) analogy here, that "horn" is a
figure of speech pertaining to the animal kingdom, such a "horn"
would imply attack, aggressiveness, and eventually "killing" (see

figure 4, on p. 337). The context makes clear that the situation is
quite different—not one that is negatively forceful, with destruc-
tiveness, but one that resounds with peaceful repose in God as the
source of safety, security, salvation. One wonders if it is not simply
"eisegesis" to make the former application, apparently based on an
a priori assumption of uniformity of the horn-motif in the various
ancient Near Eastern cultures.
Some of the hymnic texts appear to be strongly Messianic. So,
for instance, Ps 132:17, "I will make a horn to sprout for David" —
where the qrn has been rightly translated and interpreted to mean
"an invisible kingdom" that will have its "full accomplishment in
the Messiah." 14 Many such texts that refer to the dynasty of David
seem to imply a Messianic prophecy, even though eschatological
fulfillment is not explicitly stated.
Prophetic Texts
From among the prophetic texts, Jer 48:25 may serve as a
typical one: "The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,
says the Lord." The impending doom of the kingdom of Moab was
at hand, and the "qrn Moab" ("horn of Moab") appears to be used
as a technical term here, referring to the domination of Moab in a
political or national sense. The "horn" seems to refer indirectly, as
well, to the many cities of the tableland of Moab (see vss. 21-24).
Another text that may be noted is Ezek 34:21, which proclaims
an indictment: "You butt with side and shoulder, thrust at all the
weak with your horns, . . ." The act of goring (as by an ox) is in
view in the term tenaggehu (a Piel). This term derives from ngh,
which we have already seen means "to gore." The metaphor here is
clear, and the aggressive act is self-evident.
Apocalyptic Texts
Horns appear in apocalyptic visions, such as those of Daniel
in the OT and the book of Revelation in the NT. In such contexts,
what is the correct interpretation of "horns"?
M Cf. James G. Murphy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of

Psalms (Andover, Eng., 1875), p. 152; and Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150: A Com-
mentary on Books 5-5 of the Psalms (London, Eng., 1975), p. 451.
0
Ti
Z
Figure 4. An attacking bull depicted in bold relief from Huyiik. (Author's sketch, after
depiction in Kurt Bittel, Rudolf Naumann, and Otto Heinz, eds., Yazilikaya:
Architektur, Felsbilder, Inschrijten und Kleinfunde [Leipzig, 1941], p. 160, fig.
65.)
OS
OS
A close investigation of the "horn-passages" in the book of

Daniel shows that the ordinary morphological interpretation of the
word "horn" in its singular construction breaks down in apocalyp-
tic context. The singular qeren in Daniel is used to indicate powers
which are active on the horizontal or earthly level, whereas the
singular "horn" in the hymnic and prophetic texts seems to refer,
as we have seen, either to a power operating on the vertical
(heavenly) level, or to a "kingdom" or people as a sort of cryptic
device. A further usage of qeren in non-Danielic OT texts reveals
that the singular word "horn" occurs in idiomatic expressions.
By way of contrast, the dual and plural forms, "horns," in the
book of Daniel seem to conform more regularly to the normal
patterns found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible indicating that
"horns" mainly represent earthly powers operating on the hori-
zontal level.
In Dan 7:8, the qrn refers to a horn which Daniel describes as
qeren âhari sêrah, "another horn, a small/little one" (in contrast
to the ten horns). In Dan 8:9, in a parallel prophetic sequence,
again a "little horn" is brought to view—in the Hebrew, qeren-
âhat missec trah, which together with the verb yasa^, means liter-
ally, "one horn came from smallness/littleness." It seems reason-
able that an identification of these horns can be made on at least
three grounds called to attention recently by William H. Shea:
(1) the same symbolism used; (2) the same general pattern pertain-
ing to each (namely, [a] arising "at a somewhat similar time in
history," [b] beginning small and becoming great [7:8 and 8:9],
[c] being blasphemous [7:8, 25 and 8:11, 25], [d] persecuting God's
faithful ones [7:21, 25 and 8:11, 25], [e] appearing "to endure for
protracted periods of prophetic time" [7:25 and 8:14], and [f] even-
tually suffering similar fates [7:26 and 8:25]); and (3) the fact that
the structuring of Daniel's prophetic sequences in a parallel fashion
indicates the later prophecies of the book as explanations of its
earlier ones (an intent specifically stated in at least two instances,
as well: 9:22-23 and 10:1, 14). 15 Shea has also pointed out that the
correspondence between these "little horns" of Dan 7 and 8 "is
greater than those aspects of their work not mentioned in both
15William H. Shea, Selected Studies on Prophetic Interpretation (Washington,

D.C., 1982), pp. 30-31.
HORN-MOTIFS 339
passages," and that none of the "individual characteristics are

mutually exclusive so as to rule out that they [the horns] could
refer to the same power." 16
Both of these horns are described as operating on a horizontal
level, though the latter one (8:9) is described as reaching out into a
new direction, namely the vertical, and having partial success. It is
quite generally held that the two "little horns" are each a symbol
for the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but there are various
reasons which make such a view untenable in the context.
First, a close study of Dan 7:7, 24 and 8:3, 5, 21-22 reveals that
the word qrn is used with the interchangeable meaning of
"king(s)"/"kingdoms," and it appears that the term "king(s)" is
used in the sense of a ruling house or dynasty, rather than as
designating an individual. Second, the attempt to make the ten
horns of Dan 7 represent a succession of ten individual rulers (as
held in the common view) hardly does justice to the context, for the
contemporaneity of the ten is surely suggested by the fact that the
"little horn" puts down three of those ten (7:24): If the ten were
successive Seleucid rulers, only the last of these—not a total of
three—should have been put down. (Also, the very diversity of lists
given by the commentators as to the identity of these suggested
kings only tends to confirm the tenuousness of the view.)
It is beyond the scope of this article to pursue this matter
further, but it may be mentioned that other cogent arguments
against the identification of the "little horn" of Dan 7 and the
"little horn" of Dan 8 with Antiochus Epiphanes have appeared in
recent literature, 17 and that serious questions have also recently
been raised concerning the paralleling identification so generally
'"Ibid., p. 31.
"See, e.g., Shea, Selected Studies, pp. 25-44. Also, now see a fascinating
new book that appeared in November of last year, as part of the commemora-
tion of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth on November 10, 1483=
Ricardo Abos-Padilla, Pl&doyer fur Antiochos IV. Epiphanes, 47 1/2 Thesen
liber das Buck Daniel—Martin Luther zum 500. Jahrestag seiner Geburt
dargebracht (Bad Homburg, Germany, 1983). This volume is one of a two-part
series, and deals with Dan 7 and 8, the other volume to follow up with another
"47 V£ theses" on Dan 9, 11, 12. (There is an obvious and intended play on the
95 Theses of Martin Luther.) This present volume dealing with Dan 7 and 8
raises some crucial and ponderous questions concerning the common attempt to
identify the "little horn" of those two chapters with Antiochus Epiphanes.
made in attributing the activities of the "northern tyrant" of

Dan 11 to Antiochus and in drawing supposed allusions to the
Maccabean crisis from that chapter. 18
4. Summary
We have endeavored in the foregoing sections to look broadly
at the horn-motifs as used in the biblical literature, particularly the
OT, and I have discussed these under three basic types of usage. As
a brief summary, it may be stated that in general the biblical motifs
of "horn(s)" move on a vertical level, whereas the motif of "horns"
in the broader ancient-Near-Eastern context move on a horizontal
level.
That there may be overlapping in the OT horn-motifs as to
dimension and/or direction is, however, possible, as the portrayal
given in Dan 7 and 8 indicates. Here the horizontal (or horizontal
expanded to include vertical) is in view.
In any event, careful analysis of each context is always necessary
in order to be able to present as dependable an exegesis as possible.
18See, e.g., Arthur J. Ferch, "The Book of Daniel and the 'Maccabean Thesis,' "
AUSS 21 (1983): 129-141, esp. 134-136. Ferch makes an analysis—a significant one,
in my opinion—which compares the historical setting of the Maccabean period
with the so-called, supposed allusions of Dan 11 to the crisis for the Jews that
occurred under Antiochus Epiphanes. The incongruity, not the similarity, is what
stands out when this sort of comparison is made.
Some other studies have been appearing which undercut the "Maccabean
Thesis" from the other end of the chronological tunnel—studies that relate to the
increasing evidence which points to a sixth-century (rather than second-century)
date for the book of Daniel. See, e.g., Gerhard F. Hasel, "The Book of Daniel:
Evidences Relating to Persons and Chronology" and "The Book of Daniel and
Matters of Language: Evidences Relating to Names, Words, and the Aramaic
Language," AUSS 19 (1981): 37-49, 211-225, plus a series of five articles by
William H. Shea on the historical chapters of the book of Daniel, in the Spring,
Summer, and Autumn issues of 1982 and the Summer and Autumn issues of 1983 of
AUSS.
Copyright© 1984 by Andrews University Press.
ON PASTORS AS COUNSELORS
GARTH D. THOMPSON
Andrews University
Counseling is more and more coming to be recognized as an

essential element of pastoral care. 1 Nevertheless, the very notion of
pastors doing counseling seems to remain anathema to many. At
any rate, I have frequently been accosted by those who vigorously
oppose either training pastors for, or encouraging them to function
in, counseling capacities.
Thus, there remains a group of clinicians and other profes-
sionals who contend that the typical pastor—whose preparation
has largely been theological and only minimally psychological—
has no business presuming to dabble in the highly potent processes
of trained psychotherapists. (This is not to imply that all clinicians
decry some counseling activity by pastors. Many seem to welcome
it—if there has been some preparation for it.)
There is a second group who resist pastoral involvement in the
doing of counseling. These acknowledge that pastors must, of
course, deeply value ministry to individuals. Nevertheless, they
maintain that a pastor's obligations to a whole congregation
of believers must preclude his/her involvement in such time-
consuming and exclusive relationships with individuals as are
entailed in effective therapeutic counseling.
Thus, both groups tend to deplore any tendency among prac-
ticing pastors to become involved in the doing of counseling. The
first group are particularly concerned with what they perceive to be
the potential in damage that may be done to persons by un-
informed, untrained attempts at "playing psychiatrist." The second
group, on the other hand, are troubled by their fears that pre-
occupation with personal counseling will inevitably impoverish
the pastor's more traditional ministry of proclamation and congre-
gational nurturance.
'See William E. Hulme, Pastoral Care if Counseling (Minneapolis, 1981),
pp. 7-9.
341
342 GARTH D. THOMPSON
This article focuses primarily on the concerns of the former

group. At the same time, I would urge that if in fact the pastor is
going to engage in personal counseling at all, then certainly the
more informed and skilled he/she can be, the better.
1. The Need for Competent Counseling

It seems undeniable that counseling as therapy either has
potential to affect persons and their behavior for good or for ill, or
else is sheer quackery! If it does have even a modicum of such
power to affect for ill—as well as for good—then the possibility of
a practitioner's actually doing harm, is very real. In that light, the
prospect of having a horde of pastors running around "playing
psychiatrist" could indeed be truly frighteningl
Of course, there has been no lack of researchers who challenge
psychotherapists to show that even professional clinicians can
really be depended on to make a positive difference. Among the
foremost of these challengers has been H. J. Eysenck. 2 Especially in
the 1960s, he and colleagues authored a considerable body of litera-
ture contending that while over any two-year period two-thirds of
those who are mentally or emotionally disturbed recover with no
treatment, the best average that therapy could establish was a sim-
ilar two-thirds recovery rate!
Subsequent research and literature, however, has shown that
the average was established by combining the results from a distin-
guishable group of therapists and approaches achieving much
better than the two-thirds recovery rate, with the results of other
therapists who were actually doing so much damage as to reduce
the statistic to the final average.3 If, then, practitioners with sophis-
ticated training can do significant damage, what must be feared
from pastors, many of whom at best have only a brief course or two
in "Pastoral Counseling" while in seminary! It is important to
make a clear distinction here between (a) those professional "pas-
toral counselors" whose preparation enables them to hold such
2H. J. Eysenck, "The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation," Journal of

Consulting Psychology, 16 (1952): 319-323.
'Robert R. Carkhuff and Charles B. Truax, "Toward Explaining Success and
Failure in Interpersonal Learning Experiences," Personnel and Guidance Journal,
44 (1966): 723-728.
ON PASTORS AS COUNSELORS 343
credentials as, for instance, are issued by the American Association

of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) and the Association for Clinical
Pastoral Education (ACPE), and (b) practicing parish pastors, very
few of whom have such preparation and credentials.
A vigorous protest, however, must herewith be registered
against any across-the-board opposition to giving pastors and
pastors-to-be an increasingly sophisticated introduction to counsel-
ing theory and practice. It seems that professional counselors and
psychotherapists who suggest that the givers of pastoral care can-
not be greatly benefited when informed by their expertise are
selling themselves terribly short!
Pastors regularly encounter individuals who are temporarily
handicapped or disabled to one degree or another by their emo-
tional response to crisis-precipitating events or situations. In fact,
an active pastor may well encounter a larger number of these in a
single month than will a professional therapist in many months of
ongoing treatments. Has the counseling/clinical profession nothing
whereby it can inform the pastor for the enriching and effec-
tualizing of the pastoral care he/she must render to these indi-
viduals? It seems inescapable that even if his/her counseling care
for an individual is limited to a single occasion, and is free from all
diagnosis or prescription, there is promise that the effectiveness of
that care can be greatly enhanced if it is in fact informed by the
research, understanding, and processes of psychotherapy.
2. "Relationship" as Method
There are numerous findings of counseling research and prac-
tice that could afford enrichment to the giving of pastoral care.
Counseling and other clinical professionals are familiar, for in-
stance, with the findings that point to the significance of the rela-
tionship between therapist and counselee/patient. For pastors
schooled in the tradition of proclamation, exhortation, and
instruction in righteousness, informing their ministry by such
findings might tend to revolutionize their pastoral-care giving.
Addressing themselves to the statistics which suggest that pro-
fessional treatment does no more for recovery rates than does time
combined with spontaneous social interaction, both Charles Truax
and Robert Carkhuff describe these findings regarding relationship
and therapy effectiveness.4 The data indicate that whatever other

techniques and approaches be used, and whatever the theoretical
orientation of the clinician or his methods, there is a highly signif-
icant difference in recovery rates when a designatable quality of
relationship is afforded, as against when it is not afforded. It will
be shown below that in fact the relationship which Carkhuff and
Bernard Berenson have distinguished is very similar to what is de-
lineated as vital by a wide variety of clinical approaches and
methods.5
It is now commonly recognized that essential elements of the
effective relationship distinguished by Carkhuff and Berenson
include (1) genuineness, (2) empathy, (3) positive regard, and
(4) concreteness. James Hansen, et al., have shown that with the
addition of a single further element—namely, unconditionality or
nonpossessive positive regard—it is possible to cover the relation-
ship elements specified as essential by a comprehensive range of
orientations and clinicians.6 These range all the way from psy-
choanalytic theory (e.g., Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Harry S. Sul-
livan) through learning theory (e.g., John Bollard and Neal Miller,
John Wolpe, Edward Shoben) and client-centered theory (Carl
Rogers), to existential theory (Edward Dreyfus, Rollo May).
The significant point indicated here is, of course, that without
provision of such a relationship, little by way of therapeutic inter-
vention or change toward health can be expected to occur, whereas
with the relationship, healthy change tends consistently to occur,
whatever else may be used by way of techniques. The implication
is that counseling and its techniques could very possibly be reduced
to possession of these qualities and especially to the process of con-
veying them to the counselee. If in fact it is largely by the affording
of such relationship that readiness for and capacity to change are
4Charles B. Truax, "Effective Ingredients in Psychotherapy: An Approach to

Unraveling the Patient-Therapist Interaction," Journal of Counseling Psychology,
10 (1963): 256-263; and Robert R. Carkhuff, "Toward a Comprehensive Model of
Facilitative Interpersonal Processes," Journal of Counseling Psychology, 14 (1967):
67-72.
5See Robert R. Carkhuff and Bernard Berenson, Beyond Counseling and
Therapy (New York, 1967).
'James C. Hansen, Richard R. Stevic, and Richard W. Warner, Jr., Counseling:
Theory and Process (Boston, 1972).
enhanced, then it would seem that schooling pastors in attitudes

and skills contributing to such relationship could only enrich their
giving of pastoral care—however much or little they actually
engage in doing formal counseling.
3. "Listening" as Pastoral Care

It is widely recognized that the process of listening to and
responding to feeling is fundamental to formation of such relation-
ship as is change-enabling. 7 Along with numerous others,
Thomas R. Gordon has defined and described "active listening"
and shown its value for conveying the essential relational quali-
ties.8 I would propose that a further helpful consideration derives
from making a distinction between "topic hearing" and "people
(person) hearing." When the relationship builder focuses on, and
responds to, what another person may be conveying about his or her
internal self—whatever that person's topic—the result is "people
hearing." Thus, for instance, a boarding school student complain-
ing about cafeteria food just may be indicating homesickness—
though ostensibly talking about the cafeteria. "People hearing"
would focus on such messages about the person, rather than on
talk about the topic.
As William E. Hulme has recognized, "The basic approach of
listening to feelings, although new to pastoral education a few
decades ago, is now common knowledge even if not common prac-
tice."9 It seems beyond debate that for introduction to this listening
approach, the givers of pastoral care are greatly indebted to the
research and practice of psychotherapists. Understanding of the
approach and consistent practice of that approach can be (and
unquestionably are) two separate things, however. I would vigor-
ously maintain that the giving of pastoral care greatly needs, not
only constant reminders, but also continuing instruction, training,
and practice in this listening approach of ministry.
The givers of pastoral care may well find occasion for exhorta-
tion, ad vice-giving, and duty-prescription in their ministry. Never-
theless, the evidence from research reveals that pastoral care is
'See Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person (Boston, 1961).

'Thomas R. Gordon, Parent Effectiveness Training (New York, 1970).
'Hulme, p. 7.
much more helpful when it places a major emphasis on that kind

of listening which conveys empathic understanding, gives release
from anxious defensiveness, and fosters formation of change-
enabling relationship.
4. Release from Defensiveness
It is here suggested that a primary contribution of the thera-

peutic relationship, including the active listening so widely seen as
fundamental to it, is the tendency to afford the counselee/patient/
parishioner release from defensiveness. It will be remembered that
the biblical narrative of Jesus' encounter with the woman about to
be stoned for adultery (see John 8:3-11) has him assuring her that
however disgraced and degraded she might feel, he holds no con-
demnation whatever for her. One can almost feel her taut nerves
uncoiling as it dawns on her that she is released from any need to
defend herself from attack. Then Jesus invites her to that change in
her life which must forever escape her so long as the rigidities born
of defensiveness bind her. Jesus' words "Go and sin no more" have
traditionally been viewed as an injunction. In the light of his non-
condemning acceptance (though not approval), that expression
"Go and sin no more" would seem to emerge more accurately as an
invitation—an invitation to live the life she no doubt had all along
yearned to live. When pastors, schooled in theological imperatives
and identified so generally as the traditional defenders of moral
values, have had their theological sensitivities to divine reconcilia-
tion informed and reinforced by research-based counseling con-
cepts, they can afford "openings-to-change" that are uniquely
potent because of that very theological orientation.
I would here further suggest that clinicians just might find
pastors more ready to make referrals to them if the pastors were not
themselves prompted into a defensive position by their clinician
friends. In other words, if "pastoral counseling" attempts are
scorned, pastors may fear that the Christian thrust of their values is
being challenged, as well. They wonder if clinicians who belittle
their attempts to confront a parishioner with Christian values can
be sufficiently trusted for purposes of making a referral.
In contrast to this, I may point out the effect and value of
cooperative effort as evidenced by a personal experience in which
the clinician initiated the cooperative effort. Some years ago, a psy-
chiatrist in a community where I was pastoring referred one of his
patients to me in connection with what appeared to be the patient's
conflicts regarding Christian values and teachings. This, in turn,
led me as a pastor to make a significantly increased number of
referrals to that psychiatrist, because of my perception that the clini-
cian recognized* the value of some mutuality in caring for his
patient. (A significant factor in the psychiatrist's referral was, no
doubt, his awareness that the pastor had had a meaningful degree
of exposure to the basics of behavioral and counseling science.)
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, I would here propose, in contrast to both
groups who have tended to resist the training of pastors in the dis-
ciplines of counseling, that what is needed is more rather than less
of such training. Although in this essay I have in no way sought to
propose that pastors dabble in depth therapy, it must nevertheless
be recognized that pastors are going to give—indeed, they must
give—pastoral care. Surely, along with being alerted to the very
real dangers inherent in their "dabbling in psychiatry," their giv-
ing of pastoral care can yet be greatly enhanced, if they be carefully
schooled in the contributions the counseling discipline can make
to their work.
I would want to acknowledge, of course, that in fact the pros-
pect of a horde of minimally qualified pastors running around
"playing psychiatrist" is for me truly frightening. Far more fright-
ening, however, is the prospect of a horde of pastors and psycholo-
gists, psychiatrists, and other professionally trained clinicians
running around "playing GOD"—unwittingly or otherwise!
Sometimes, and unfortunately, the more expertise one has, the
more likely is he/she to presume to absolute judgments, diagnoses,
prescriptions, etc. To forget that the best that psychological or per-
sonality tests and inventories have to offer is probability data, and
to forget that clinically derived data about a person can never be
complete—to forget such things and then to presume certainty in
projection, in label of condition, in prescription of duty or of
remedy, is little less than presuming to "play God." Not all practi-
tioners subscribe, of course, to all the notions of non-directive
counseling. But maybe that approach can warn all finite human
beings from dabbling in the certainties that belong solely to the

infinite!
It is here submitted that one very likely way to avoid such
God-playing, at least for pastors, is to provide them (and pastors-
to-be) with more—not less—exposure to the best that counseling
research and practice can offer. In so doing, there will also un-
doubtedly be an enrichment of the pastoral care these pastors afford
individuals and congregations.
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
Andrews University doctoral dissertations are microfilmed by University

Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Some dissertations will
also have been published in dissertation series (e.g., the Andrews University
Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series), and in such cases, the pertinent infor-
mation will be noted in connection with the abstract printed herein.
CHRISTIAN-BUDDHIST DIALOGUE IN THE WRITINGS OF

LYNN A. DE SILVA
Author: Tissa Brian de Alwis. Th.D., 1983.
Adviser: Robert M. Johnston.
(Tissa Brian de Aluiis is a member of the History and Religious Philosophy

faculties of Spicer Memorial College, Aundh Road, Ganeshkhind Post,
Poona 411007, India.)
By an analysis and evaluation of Lynn A. de Silva's dialogue with Sri
Lankan Buddhism, this dissertation studies the theological implications of
inter-religious dialogue that call for resolution from the Christian stand-
point, the Christian self-understanding in religiously plural context, and
the essentials of authentic inter-religious dialogue.
Chap. 1 surveys the historical factors which heightened the encounter
between the two religions and describes the background from which
De Silva's theology emerged. Developments in the debate on inter-religious
dialogue in missionary conferences in Asia and in the World Council of
Churches reveal the confrontation between Asian and European theologies.
It is shown that De Silva's dialogical concerns arose out of existential
contact with Sri Lankan Buddhism, and that the resurgence of Buddhism
and the transition in Christian missionary attitudes led to a Sri Lankan
expression of Christianity.
Chap. 2 describes De Silva's holistic dialogical approach in contrast to
theoretical Western approaches. The basic ingredients essential to authentic
dialogue and its objectives, as spelled out by De Silva, are noted. In his
appraisal of the Buddhist approach to dialogue, dialogical exchanges with
Buddhist thought leaders, and use of Buddhist terms, a practised theology
of dialogue emerges.
Chap. 3 describes the translational nature of De Silva's dialogical
theology. The process of conveying concepts from one religious context to
another is traced in his use of Tilakkhana (the three signata of Buddhism)
349
350 SEMINARY STUDIES
as a conceptual framework in the development of: (1) a Christian-Buddhist

estimate of man—the relation between anatta (non-self) and the Christian
teaching about the spirit; (2) an inclusivist Christology—Christ as
Dharma-Logos, and his salvific role in the religions; and (3) anatta and
the indispensability of God.
Chap. 4 evaluates De Silva's 'treatment of Christianity and Buddhism
as complementary systems and sifts out that which is theologically decisive
for authentic inter-faith dialogue. It deals with the Buddhist response to
De Silva and assesses his dialectical approach. It is shown that the salvific
status accorded to other religions is crucial to Asian Christian self-
understanding on the questions of church and mission.
DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS 351
THE MEANING OF TEAOE IN ROMANS 10:4

Author: Roberto David Badenas. Ph.D., 1983.
Adviser: Abraham Teri'an.
(Roberto David Badenas is a member of the Religion faculty and of the

Departments of French and Spanish Language and Culture of Colegio
Adventista de Sagunto, Carretera de Petres, Sagunto [Valencia], Spain.)
This study attempts to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the mean-
ing of 16X01; in Rom 10:4 and to provide philological criteria for the
understanding of this term.
Chap. 1 indicates clearly that a considerable shift has occurred in the
history of the interpretation of 16X05 in Rom 10:4. The early church and
the Reformers understood this verse in a ideological/completive sense: as a
statement of the fulfillment of the law in Christ in a prophetic as well as
purposive signification. However, since the post-Reformation era and
particularly since the nineteenth century, the terminal/temporal/anti-
nomian interpretations have prevailed. Rom 10:4 has been generally
approached from the perspective of the law-gospel debate. The thrust of
the passage and the meaning of t£A,o<; have not received due attention.
T£Xo<; has been translated by "termination," "fulfillment," or "goal,"
without semantic substantiation.
Chap. 2 provides the needed philological study on the word t£Xo<; and
the phrase t£Xoc, vdnoo in biblical and cognate literature. This study shows
that the semantic import of T£A.o<; is primarily teleological, not temporal.
T£X.oc, with a genitive is generally used to indicate purpose or outcome, not
termination. The phrase TeXxx; vdnou designates the object or fulfillment of
law, never its abrogation. Therefore, on philological grounds, the interpre-
tation of Rom 10:4 as "Christ has superseded or abrogated the law" would
be awkward, if not incorrect or unintelligible to the audience of Romans,
even if it were so intended by Paul.
Chap. 3 consists of an exegesis of Rom 10:4 and its immediate context
(9:30-10:21) within the larger context of Rom 9-11. It shows that v6uo<; is
consistently used in this section in the broad sense of Torah, while likoc, is
used probably as the culminating point in a series of athletic terms. It
appears, therefore, that the relationship between Christ and the law is
explained by Paul in teleological categories. One main concern of Paul in
this passage is to prove that the Torah leads to the gospel (10:5-21) and
that the Christ-event is the climactic manifestation of the righteousness of
God promised in Scripture (10:4-8). The way Paul deals with the OT in
this passage reveals one of the lesser-known features of his thought,
namely, his teleological view of Scripture.
TOWARD A CRITICISM OF THEOLOGICAL REASON: TIME AND TIME-

LESSNESS AS PRIMORDIAL PRESUPPOSITIONS
Author: Fernando Luis Canale. Ph.D., 1983.
Adviser: Raoul Dederen.
(Fernando Luis Canale is a member of the Biblical Languages and Old

Testament faculties of Colegio Adventista del Plata, 3103 Villa Libertador
San Martin, Entre Rios, Argentina.)
This investigation studies the possibility of developing a theological
criticism of Christian theological reason. The investigation proceeds by
developing a phenomenological analysis of three major contexts within
which reason has been interpreted and utilized by Christian theology for
the constitution of its exegetical and systematic formulations: the philo-
sophical, theological, and biblical contexts.
The philosophical context shows that the structure of reason requires
the interpretation of Being's dimensionality which determines its basic
meaning and functioning. Moreover, it shows that Being's dimensionality
has been interpreted in two ways: as timeless and as temporal.
The theological context, through the analysis of reason's procedures
as a tool for the constitution of meaning in Thomas Aquinas's and Rudolf
Bultmann's systems, shows that theology has depended on philosophical
criticism of reason and its classical timeless interpretation of Being's
dimensionality. Thomas's system, and with him conservative theology,
follows the Aristotelian interpretation of reason, while Bultmann's system,
and with him liberal theology, follows the Kantian interpretation.
The biblical context, through the analysis of Exod3:14, the locus
classicus- for the discussion about Being in Scripture, shows that theo-
logical criticism of theological reason is possible and that biblical reflec-
tion on Being interprets its dimensionality as temporal. Moreover, in
consideration of the facts that the philosophical context uncovers the
hypothetical nature of reason, and that Christian theology is rooted in the
conceptuality of the biblical reflection in which it is grounded, it is
suggested that criticism of theological reason should be developed follow-
ing the temporal interpretation of Being as rooted and developed in the
Scriptures.
On this basis, it is further suggested that such a criticism should be
able to provide theology with the necessary starting point for advancing
beyond the alternatives provided by the Aristotelian and Kantian interpre-
tations of reason that so far have conditioned the interpretation and actual
functioning of reason as a tool for the constitution of Christian theological
meanings.
A STUDY OF SELF-ESTEEM OF DELINQUENT MALE ADOLESCENTS

AND THE PERCEIVED DEGREE OF THEIR PARENTS' CHILD-REARING
PRACTICES
Author: Dayton Chin Keong Chong. Ed.D., 1981.
Adviser: Mercedes Dyer.
(Dayton Chin Keong Chong is Therapist at the New Day Center [a Center
for Substance Abuse Services of the Battle Creek Adventist Hospital], 565
General Avenue, Battle Creek, Michigan 49015.)
Problem. Many developmental psychologists are concerned about how
parents' child-rearing practices influence adolescents' self-esteem, for self-
esteem provides one of the foundations for the development of personality.
Is it possible that parents' child-rearing practices contribute to the develop-
ment of a low self-esteem, which in turn influences behavior? This study
was conducted to determine the relationship of self-esteem of delinquent
male adolescents to the perceived degree of their parents' child-rearing
practices.
Procedure. The study involved 132 delinquent male adolescents who
matriculated during the fall semester of 1979 at Starr Commonwealth,
Albion, Michigan. The males ranged from 12 to 18 years of age, with 82
whites, 34 blacks, 4 American Indians, 3 Spanish Americans, and 4 others.
Of this total, 106 came from two-parent homes.
Two instruments were used to collect data on the self-esteem of
delinquent male adolescents and the perceived degree of their parents'
child-rearing practices. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) was
employed to assess the self-esteem of delinquent male adolescents. The
Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR) was used to investigate the
perceived degree of their parents' child-rearing practices.
It was hypothesized that a significant correlation exists between self-
esteem of delinquent male adolescents and the perceived degree of their
parents' child-rearing practices. It was also hypothesized that significant
multiple correlations exist between ten variables pertaining to parent-child
relations and each of four self-esteem variables.
Zero-order correlations and multiple regression analysis were used to
analyze the data.
Results. Among the 132 delinquent male adolescents, 95 percent of
their fathers were employed, while 75 percent of their mothers were
homemakers. Low self-esteem was found among these delinquent male
adolescents. They perceived their fathers' child-rearing practices as de-
manding, casual, loving, and tending to give symbolic-love rewards. They
perceived their mothers' child-rearing practices to be demanding, loving,

and giving of symbolic-love rewards.
Significant correlations were found to exist between the following:
(a) the social self-esteem of these delinquent male adolescents and the
perceived degree of their fathers' demanding child-rearing practices; (b) the
general self-esteem of these delinquent male adolescents and the perceived
degree of symbolic-love rewards given by their mothers; (c) the school self-
esteem of these delinquent male adolescents and the perceived degree of
symbolic-love punishment given by their mothers; and (d) the social self-
esteem of these delinquent male adolescents and the perceived degree of
their mothers' casual child-rearing practices,
A significant multiple correlation was found to exist between ten
parent-child-relations (mothers') variables and school self-esteem. Greater
self-esteem tended to be related to the delinquent male adolescents' percep-
tions of less-demanding, greater symbolic-love reward and symbolic-love
punishment child-rearing practices on the part of their mothers.
No significant correlations were found to exist between general self-
esteem, school self-esteem, social self-esteem, and home self-esteem of these
delinquent male adolescents and the perceived degree of their parents'
protective, rejecting, neglecting, loving, direct-object reward, and direct-
object punishment child-rearing practices. No significant multiple corre-
lations were found to exist between the ten parent-child-relations variables
and general, social, and home self-esteem.
Conclusion. The delinquent male adolescents in this study mani-
fested a lower self-esteem in relation to the perceived degree of their
parents' child-rearing practices. This low self-esteem was related to a
pattern of varied child-rearing practices by their fathers and mothers, as
perceived by these youth: demanding fathers and casual mothers; and
fathers whose child-rearing practices were both demanding and casual,
and casual and loving.
SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF HOME SCHOOLS AND PARENTS WHO

OPERATE THEM
Author: Gunnar A. Gustavsen. Ed.D., 1981.
Adviser: George H. Akers.
(Gunnar A. Gustavsen is President of the North Norway Conference
[Seventh-day Adventist Church], Parkgaten 35, 9000 Troms0, Norway.)
Problem. The home-school movement in America presents a rapidly
emerging alternative to conventional educational systems. The purpose of
this study was to identify selected characteristics of home schools and of
the parents who operate them.
Procedure. The population used in this descriptive research was drawn
from the files of the Hewitt Research Foundation, Berrien Springs,
Michigan. Potential respondents were parents indicating recent experience
or interest in home-school operations.
The study was designed to develop a profile of home schools and
home-school operators by identifying central tendencies in the respondent
data. A mailed questionnaire asked the parents questions in five areas:
(1) reasons for operating home school; (2) the general nature of home
schools; (3) essential elements for home-school success; (4) psychographic
characteristics of home-school operators; and (5) demographic characteris-
tics of home-school operators.
Findings. Data analysis produced the following findings:
1. The major reasons expressed by parents for operating home schools
(in order of importance) were as follows: (a) interest in the moral health
and character development of their children; (b) concern over the detri-
mental effect of rivalry and ridicule in conventional schools; (c) parent-
perceived poor quality of public-school education; and (d) the desire to
extend parent-child contact.
2. The general nature of home schools, as revealed by the responses,
embraces the following typical home-school characteristics: (a) a small,
family enterprise, averaging two children and sponsored by both parents;
and (b) an informal, child-centered, relatively flexible program.
3. Parent-perceived success factors (in order of importance) were as
follows: (a) love of children; (b) strong parental determination; (c) family
unity in the enterprise; (d) support from friends and others; and (e) eco-
nomic ability to afford the additional expenses.
4. The psychographic profile indicated that parents were, for the most
part, conservatives politically and regular in church attendance. Home-
school operators expressed concern over violence in public schools, and
over excess government control. They reported themselves as occasional

travelers and as moderately active in community affairs.
5. The demographic profile indicated the following: For the most
part, home-school operators (a) lived in small or rural areas; (b) came
from religious backgrounds that were diverse and non-traditional; and
(c) tended to have small families. Generally, operators were homemaking
mothers whose spouses were professionals or skilled workers, with a
household income ranging between $15,000 and }20,000 per year. The
parents typically had attended between one and three years of college.
Conclusions. These parent profiles identify a segment of the Ameri-
can population that is likely to initiate and operate home schools. They
tend to be individualistic, law-abiding, concerned about their parent role,
dissatisfied with available options in contemporary education, and actively
engaged in implementing their own solution. They desire to reestablish
the home as the basic unit in a free-enterprise society and are willing to
confront social opposition in order to meet their personal goals. Boards of
Education could well restudy the home school as a valid option in
education.
BOOK REVIEWS
Ball, Bryan W. The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of Seventh-

day Adventist Belief. Cambridge, Eng.: James Clarke/Greenwood,
S.C.: Attic Press. 1981. 252pp. $15.95 (in England, £7.50).
The English Connection is an excellent analysis of "Puritan religious

thought, in its broadest sense," which Ball believes "gave to the English-
speaking world all the essentials of contemporary Adventist belief" (p. 3).
Although treating a complex subject in an encyclopedic fashion, it is a
very well-organized and lucid work that not only allows the Puritans of
the late sixteenth through early eighteenth century to speak for themselves
by drawing upon numerous quotations from Puritan divines, preachers,
and polemicists, but also synthesizes and interprets for the general reader
the more difficult aspects of Puritan theology.
After a brief survey of the history of Puritanism, the study concentrates
on specific key doctrines, each discussed thematically rather than chrono-
logically, in the light of specific Puritan writings and in association with
related beliefs. These key beliefs are encapsulated in the book's chapter
titles: "The Sufficiency of Scripture," "This Incomparable Jesus," "The
Lord Our Righteousness," "The New Man," "Believer's Baptism," "A
High Priest in Heaven," "Gospel Obedience," "The Seventh-Day Sab-
bath," "The Whole Man," "The Return of Christ," "The Great Almanack
of Prophecy," and "The World to Come."
In his introduction, Ball states that his purpose is "to examine specific
doctrines" that show how "in its essentials, Seventh-day Adventist belief
had been preached and practised in England during the Puritan era"
(p. 2). A related purpose is to disprove those who see Adventism as
"deviant" and to "demonstrate Adventism's essential affinity with historic,
biblical Protestantism as opposed to any superficial relationship to
nineteenth-century pseudo-Christian sectarianism" (p. 3). These worthy
goals, unfortunately, raise certain difficulties.
It is clear from his choice of doctrines that, in this study at least, Ball
interprets Puritanism in light of its later contribution to Adventism. Is it
fair, however, to perceive Adventist belief in the past rather than to trace
the means and extent of Adventist borrowing from the past? Can looking
at the seventeenth century from the point of view of the nineteenth century
357
lead to certain distortions of emphasis? Such questions must have troubled

the author, for he acknowledges that "many Puritans did not hold any of
the doctrines which would later become distinctive tenets of Adventism,
with the exception perhaps of belief in the literal second coming of Christ
at the end of the age" (p. 3). If such is the case, then to what extent can one
really argue that Seventh-day Adventists are the heirs of Puritanism? The
problem is evident, for example, in the recognition that although some
Puritans taught both the doctrine of scriptural primacy and the seventh-
day sabbath, both doctrines did not gain equal acceptance. In fact, it is
difficult to accept the key doctrine of the sabbath as "Puritan," since some
of the most prominent Puritan divines—including Richard Baxter, John
Bunyan, and John Owen, as Ball notes—opposed Christian observance of
the seventh-day sabbath.
Other problems are the result not so much of the book's purpose as
the author's methodology. For example, Ball does not delineate the "essen-
tials" of Seventh-day Adventism, yet assumes that the reader will recognize
the Puritan doctrines as the basis of later belief. He does not compare spe-
cific Puritan doctrines with official Adventist belief and practice, but at the
beginning of each chapter only juxtaposes quotations "from representative
Adventist authors" and "typical statements from Puritan spokesmen" to
suggest their relationship (p. 4). Ball defends this approach by arguing
that presenting official Adventist doctrine "would have necessitated a
reduced and inevitably superficial treatment of the original source mate-
rial" and by suggesting that interested readers may learn of contemporary
Adventist belief by consulting denomination publications (see ibid.). Thus,
many readers will be forced either to accept the author's analysis of
Puritanism as representing "the Adventist position" on the doctrines he
examines, or will need to read in other sources, intermixing various works
in order to draw conclusions. This is unfortunate, given the polemical
nature of some studies on Adventism and the fact that Adventist doctrine is
neither static nor consistently presented even in official publications. The
author's argument would have been greatly strengthened by even a short
conclusion relating Puritanism to specific Adventist doctrine and suggest-
ing how Adventism developed or modified particular beliefs.
The book, therefore, is not so much a study of the relationship
between Puritanism and Seventh-day Adventism as it is a well-researched,
careful, and sympathetic examination of select Puritan doctrines. More-
over, Ball speaks against the caricatured view that has given Puritan reli-
gious experience a negative image, and attempts to place the vivid and
often overstated language of Puritan polemics within its historical context.
This study is packed with fascinating and thought-provoking infor-
mation that is not simply of historical interest but touches on contempo-
rary issues. Ball notes, for example, that Puritans did not believe in "verbal
inspiration" and were greatly concerned about exegetical method. He also
BOOK REVIEWS 359
discusses the Puritan concept of righteousness and justification, the "cri-

tical" relationship between justification and sanctification, and the Puri-
tan opposition to perfectionism. Commenting on the understanding of
Christ's role as high priest and the heavenly sanctuary, Ball makes clear
that while the reality of that sanctuary is not to be doubted, "many
seventeenth-century interpreters, if not most, stopped short of requiring a
sanctuary in heaven which corresponded in exact substance to the sanctu-
ary that had existed on earth" (p. 110).
Particularly interesting is Ball's analysis of the Puritan understanding
of biblical prophecy. Puritans were convinced that Christ would return
soon, but they avoided "capricious date-setting or the subjective and irre-
sponsible interpretation of prophecy" (p. 182). Puritan expositors in
general were neither fanatics nor extremists. They saw prophecy, not "as a
basis for speculation concerning the course of future events," but as "given
to substantiate faith by the verification of its fulfilment in events which
can be demonstrated to have taken place" (p. 195). Noting that Richard
Bernard believed that prophecy should be interpreted only in the context
of its fulfillment in history, Ball rightly concludes, "Had all would-be
interpreters of prophecy in the seventeenth century, and later, heeded this
principle, Christ's Church might have been spared much embarrassment
in the realm of prophetic interpretation, and, what is fundamentally more
important, might not in later times have turned away so consistently from
the legitimate and necessary study of biblical prophecy" (pp. 195-196).
I must take issue, however, with a few minor statements concerning
prophetic interpretation. Ball describes the historicist approach to prophecy
as "the norm of prophetic interpretation through Christian history"
(p. 204). Such an understanding—based upon Froom's Prophetic Faith of
Our Fathers— is not accurate for the vast majority of Christian interpreters.
The historicist position, although having its roots in twelfth-century
commentaries, did not fully develop until the seventeenth century, and
then only among Protestant writers. It cannot be fairly called "the norm."
This misunderstanding, furthermore, results in a second error. In his de-
scription of the "futurist" interpretation of prophecy associated with the
two Jesuits, Ribera and Bellarmine, Ball accurately describes their position
as "the projection of the Antichrist to the future, as a Jew who would arise
at the end of time, and in whom would dwell all the powers of the Devil"
(p. 205). He is mistaken, however, in his conclusion: "It was under these
circumstances that this futurist concept of the Antichrist first appeared in
Christian thought" (ibid.). The concept of Antichrist he describes, in fact,
represents the norm for the majority of Christian thinkers until the
Reformation, a point I establish in my Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A
Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, "Art, and Literature (Seattle, Washing-
ton, 1981). The Jesuit writers of the Catholic Reformation were not devel-
oping .a new interpretation, but restating the traditional medieval
understanding of Antichrist and the last days. Finally, one should note
that although Augustine did understand the Millennium to represent the
period between Christ's first and second comings, he did not expect, as
Ball states, that "the Last Judgement would take place in the year A.D. 1000
or thereabouts" (pp. 214-215). In fact, Augustine repeatedly argued against
interpretations attempting to date the last days.
These blemishes, related as they are to the discussion of non-Puritan
theology, do not depreciate several major contributions of The English
Connection. First, the book brings together in manageable form a vast
amount of information concerning the Puritan tradition, including the
thought of learned theologians, more radical spokesmen, and even literary
figures such as Milton and Bunyan. In the past, studies have concentrated
on the more radical political and millenarian aspects of Puritanism in the
early seventeenth century and have generally concluded after the Restora-
tion of the Stuarts in 1660. However, Ball also examines the work of later
Puritan writers not often studied, and he synthesizes a vast amount of orig-
inal source material, drawing out the significant points and showing
relationships.
The book makes two other significant contributions, particularly in
light of contemporary Adventism. Even while wishing for more detailed
comparison of specific Puritan and Adventist doctrines, one applauds
Ball's choice of doctrines to examine, for these include the very basics of
Christian belief (e.g., the authority of Scripture and the nature of man and
of Christ). Similarly helpful is the book's reminder that Adventism derives
from an essentially radical—rather than Lutheran—branch of the Protes-
tant Reformation. The roots of Adventism go back to those who believed
that early Protestantism had not completed the necessary re-formation of
Christian doctrine. Thus, in its analysis of Puritanism, The English Con
nection directs our attention further back into history, to the ideals of the
apostolic church.
Walla Walla College RICHARD KENNETH EMMERSON
College Place, Washington 99324
Edwards, Mark U., Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Polemics and Politics, 1531 -
46. Ithaca, N.Y., and London, Eng.: Cornell University Press, 1983.
250 pp. $27.75.
In recent years, Luther scholars have begun to focus at last on the less
dramatic years of the Reformer's life and work. Gerald Strauss, for
example, has investigated the attempt to educate the masses into the
Reformation and shown the disappointment that Luther and his followers
BOOK REVIEWS 361
felt at the progress of the Word, while Susan Karant-Nunn has demon-
strated the decisive role played by the electors of Saxony in organizing the
new church, sometimes overriding the wishes of the Wittenberg theolo-
gians. Mark U. Edward's well-documented study of Luther's polemical
works after 1530 confirms and illuminates both these findings, as it seeks
to discover why Luther wrote in such a violent and abusive way in the last
years of his life.
Old age and painful illness may have had something to do with
Luther's vehemence in his later years, but Edwards shows that there is no
direct correlation between bouts of pain and choleric outbursts in print. If
pain was involved, it may have been of a different order. The 1530s did not
live up to Luther's expectations. Neither the Word nor anything else
seemed capable of doing all that he had expected. And the more that men
failed to respond, the more Luther convinced himself that they had har-
dened their hearts. The need to woo was thus past. All that was left was the
prophetic duty of rallying the faithful against the forces of antichrist for
the last great battle.
This is a convincing explanation, based on Luther's works them-
selves, on an analysis of the narrowing circle of places of publications, and
on Luther's correspondence. Edwards does not investigate the possibility
that the language of hyperbole might on occasion have been used as a last
desperate attempt to win over the uncommitted, but even this modification
would leave his central thesis intact. In the main, the harshness of Luther's
language is that of the general seeking to muster his forces in defence of
the innocent and unwary against a dreadful foe.
The foe took many guises. The Jews, of whom Luther had been so
hopeful in the early 1520s, were leading men astray by their cunning
exegesis, he felt. So too were the Anabaptists (who receive scant attention
in this work) and the papacy, the latter of which he variously identified as
the antichrist and the false prophet of the book of Revelation. Together
with the Turks (the "little horn" of Daniel and the Gog of Ezekiel and
Revelation, according to Luther), these groups represented the forces of the
Devil gathering for the last great conflict. But the Turks were also seen by
him as the scourge of God upon a careless and ungrateful Empire, which,
for the most part, had either rejected the gospel or neglected its deeper
claims. And the rejection, Luther sensed pessimistically, was final. So the
Jew, the papist, the radical reformer, and the Turk were to be fought tena-
ciously with whatever weapons were at hand.
Thus, if Luther was the victim of anything in his latter years, it was
not his physical illnesses, but rather his frustration and disappointment,
and his belief in his own prophetic role. "Victim" is too strong a word,
however, for he was able to modulate the volume of his abuse as the ocda-
sion demanded.
What the occasion demanded was often what the Elector of Saxony
required. At times, as in the Schonitz affair, Luther was restrained until
John Frederick became convinced that there were no political gains to be
made by moderation. At other times, as in the cases of resistance to the
Emperor and attendance at a General Council, Luther's advice was sought
and rejected, and the Reformer was asked to think again. The result was
that in respect to the General Council, Luther found himself defending a
position in which he did not fully believe—namely, that Protestants
should not attend—and in respect to resistance to the Emperor, reaching a
theory that might never have occurred to him—namely, that when the
Emperor acted as the sword-arm of a blasphemous papacy, he forfeited all
claims to obedience.
Again, in 1541, Luther was persuaded to ordain a bishop he did not
want, as the result of a takeover of which he did not approve, and then to
defend the actions with his pen. Luther was not quite his own man. It was
disingenuous of the Elector to excuse himself by talking of Luther's inde-
pendent spirit, when the latter reached the height of his abusive vulgarity
in Against the Papacy in 1545: The tract was written with conviction, but
it was written at John Frederick's request. The Prince knew what to
expect, the Professor knew what was expected. Edwards does not ask us to
believe the crude picture of Luther as the Elector's lackey, but he does
show us clearly the political constraints within which Luther worked.
Another major point to emerge from this study is that even in his
polemical works, Luther finds space—often considerable space—for care-
fully argued theology and church history. Indeed, Edwards argues that
Luther's increasing knowledge and use of church history is one of the
features of the 1530s. He is, perhaps, a little too trusting of Luther's con-
tention that he was now able to demonstrate a posteriori what he had
previously held a priori. Like so much that the great man wrote, this is an
exaggeration. Luther's early conviction that the papacy was the antichrist
came not a priori, but from his study of the decretals whilfe preparing for
the Leipzig disputation of 1519.
The book is undoubtedly a valuable addition to Luther literature and
increases our understanding of the still somewhat dimly lit later period of
the Reformer's career. The less wary, however, will need to remind them-
selves that the work does not intend to give a well-rounded portrait of the
Reformer; Luther the lecturer, pastor, and devotional writer is not repre-
sented here.
The Cornell University Press is to be congratulated on printing some
of the woodcuts from Against the Papacy. They are, to our more delicate
and irenic age, a grim reminder of the spirit in which the battles of the
Reformation were fought. The reproduction is excellent. Unfortunately,
the same adjective cannot be applied to the proof-reading. The author's
BOOK REVIEWS 363
reasoning is completely obscured on p. 17 by two sentences on lines 24-26

which occur again, this time rightly, on lines 32-34. And one wonders
whether the computer upon which, the author tells us, the book was com-
posed, edited, and typeset is responsible for the use of "who" instead of
"whom" (p. 17) and for such words as "imminentness" (p. 17), "thusly"
(p. 50) and "signators" (p. 74), as well as for such phrases as "Zapolya . . .
had a falling out with Suleiman" (p. 102). Again, while repetition across
chapters is understandable in a topical analysis, repetition within them is
more difficult to excuse.
However, one cannot but admire an author who has given us so much
to think about and whose generous spirit prompts him to offer his com-
puter printouts (the fruit of the tedious task of listing and classifying
Luther's works) to any scholar who cares to ask for them. It is the spirit
that informed Luther himself in his better moments.
Newbold College HARRY LEONARD
Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 5AN
England
Emmerson, Richard Kenneth. Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of

Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1981. 366pp. $19.50.
Almost a century ago Wilhelm Bousset, in an entry for the Encyclo

paedia Britannica, observed that "to write the history of the idea of Anti-
christ in the last centuries of the Middle Ages would be almost to write
that of the Middle Ages themselves." Richard Emmerson's study of medi-
eval apocalypticism, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, is the latest major
contribution in a long line of works—beginning with J. Ernest Renan's
L'Antechrist (1873) and Bousset's own The Antichrist Legend (1896) and
extending to Marjorie Reeves's Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future
(1976)—which attempt to clarify our understanding of this immense and
complicated theme. Emmerson's study is comprehensive, informative, and
often fascinating; but it would be presumptuous to conclude, in the light
of Bousset's judgment, that the final word had yet been written on the
medieval obsession with Antichrist.
Emmerson's book is largely what it purports to be, an interdisci-
plinary study of medieval eschatological thought concentrating on the
Antichrist tradition. It draws upon a variety of sources, including com-
mentaries, manuscripts, sermons, drama, and poetry. The disciplines that
will benefit most from Emmerson's work are clearly those of medieval his-
tory, art, literature, and theology, with a heavy, and perhaps inevitable,
bias to the theological.
Students of historical theology in particular will be interested in the

first three chapters, which seek to identify and elucidate the person and
purpose of Antichrist in medieval thought, and in the conclusion which,
despite its title, ("Antichrist in the Renaissance"), focuses essentially on
the Reformation and Counter-Reformation concepts of the Antichrist.
Those interested in these disciplines within the periods designated will be
indebted to Emmerson on a number of counts.
The thesis of this study is that in the medieval period, Antichrist was
never wholly nor even principally identified with Rome and the Papacy.
Although the medieval Antichrist tradition turns out to be very complex, it
did not in general "equate Antichrist with the pope" (p. 7). In reaching
this conclusion, Emmerson demonstrates that the medieval Antichrist con-
cept developed largely on the strength of association and assumption,
rather than on what today would be regarded as hermeneutically accept-
able exegesis. This is already to acknowledge that medieval exegetes would
claim to base their views on the biblical text. Consequently, to the asser-
tion that for "the Christian of the Middle Ages" the medieval view of
Antichrist was "rooted firmly in scriptural authority" (p. 34) must be
added the crucial provisos that the Antichrist tradition developed largely
because exegetes associated many biblical passages without sufficient rea-
son for so doing, and that to such unwarranted associations were added the
accretions derived from apocryphal sources, sibylline oracles, and oral
legend (pp. 34-35). As Emmerson ultimately shows, it is to this amalgam
of assumption and exegesis, revelation and speculation, that Counter-
Reformation eschatology eventually returns in its attempt to find an
Antichrist different from that of Reformation theology.
In working out his thesis, Emmerson reminds us that from the earliest
times in the history of the Christian Church there have been two Antichrist
traditions. One has expected Antichrist to appear shortly before the par-
ousia, as a single individual openly opposed to Christ and the Church, a
usurper claiming the prerogatives of Christ, a pseudo-Christ. The other
tradition has seen Antichrist in a continuing succession of groups and tra-
ditions opposed to Christ and the gospel, in heretics, apostates, and all
enemies of the Church, including Jews and Mohammedans. Although
there was clearly an element in medieval apocalypticism which identified
Antichrist with the Papacy, even with an individual pope (cf. Marjorie
Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future [London, Eng., 1976],
pp. 39-40), and which can in retrospect be seen as a precursor of the view
that came to full flower in the Reformation, there remained a broader
understanding, which, rooted in the seminal Antichrist texts of 1 John 2:18,
22 and 4:3, understood the Antichrist to designate any individual or body
of individuals essentially opposed to Christ and the gospel.
BOOK REVIEWS 365
It follows from this that belief in Antichrist may have a personal rele-
vance as well as, or even more significant than, any ultimate eschatological
meaning. As Emmerson discerningly emphasizes, the Old French poem
Tournoiement de I'Antecrist is "more concerned with the conversion of
Huon than with the end of the world," and is "not primarily eschato-
logical" (p. 191). If Emmerson's interpretation of Tournoiement de I'Ante
crist is correct, then ultimately the battle between good and evil in the
individual soul may be of equal importance to the eschatological drama
played out on a cosmic stage.
It is only fair to add that this view of Antichrist is balanced by
William Langland's Antichrist in Piers Plowman, the fourteenth-century
English poem which, as Emmerson points out, ends with its chief charac-
ter "near death in a corrupt church, Unity, hopelessly besieged from with-
out and undermined from within by the hosts of Antichrist" (p. 193).
Indeed, Emmerson's analysis of Piers Plowman is one of the most
enlightening features of the entire study, and it deserves notice for its
determination to interpret the poem in a manner quite different from that
of most contemporary critics. Emmerson is particularly interested in the
poem's eschatological conclusion; he sees it as "typical of the Antichrist
tradition, which is both pessimistic and optimistic" (p. 200), and he
thereby suggests implicitly that at the level of individual appropriation a
synthesis of the two traditionally opposing interpretations of Antichrist is
both possible and desirable. Rather than the "radical Joachimist expecta-
tion of a renovatio mundi after Antichrist's defeat," with all that that
implies, "Piers Plowman emphasizes the need for an individual search for
salvation" (pp. 200, 201). The individual is to be more concerned with a
present and personal victory over Antichrist than with the eschatological
drama; and indeed, such a victory is itself a preparation for the eschato-
logical drama which yet will inevitably ensue. Emmerson argues his case
here with insight and conviction, striving at the same time to dispel the
notion that Piers Plowman defends any concept of ultimate social
transformation.
Two additional consequences of Emmerson's work also deserve com-

ment here. First, his survey of medieval apocalypticism provides further
evidence that postmillennialism, as such, did not originate with Daniel
Whitby in the eighteenth century, a view set forth in L. E. Froom's four-
volume Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (see 2:651). Whitby may well have
brought various elements of postmillennialism together, and promulgated
them with greater effectiveness, but many of the essential elements of
Whitby's millennial expectations were clearly anticipated by various mil-
lenarian movements of the later Middle Ages. (Notice also the British
antecedents of Whitbyism mentioned in the present writer's A Great

Expectation: Eschatological Thought in English Protestantism to 1660
[Leiden, 1975], p. 170). Emmerson's study confirms that a common feature
of much millenarian expectation was that of a reign of the saints on earth
prior to Christ's Second Advent, even if that reign was not always of a
thousand-years' duration. In the light of the evidence, Whitby cannot
rightly be regarded as "the avowed originator" of postmillennialism.
The second point of note relating to Emmerson's study is of quite a
different nature from that which has been treated in my foregoing com-
ments. It deals with the matter of the source material Emmerson calls
upon, much of which is not theological in a strictly technical sense. While
his discussion is clearly theological in content, his net is cast much wider
than sermons, commentaries, homilies, and the like. We are thus reminded
of the fact that literature, in the classical sense, can be the handmaid of
theology, and an effective instrument for the dissemination of spiritual
truth. One feels instinctively that C. S. Lewis, for example, would have
understood and approved the appearance of Antichrist and of other pro-
tagonists in the spiritual warfare of man in medieval drama and poetry.
Emmerson's examination of the relevant poems and plays is therefore
rather a timely reminder that the popular mind can be influenced by reli-
gious concepts and impregnated by spiritual realities through media that
are other dian overtly religious. At least, this seems to have been the case in
the Middle Ages; and if then, why not in other ages? If Emmerson's study
does nothing more than point us to the fact that literature in all its forms
is a perfectly legitimate vehicle for conveying religious truth, it will have
done much.
The foregoing merits notwithstanding, this publication is not without

flaws, two of which in particular are related and cannot be passed over.
First, Emmerson is too imprecise in regard to the historical periods with
which his study is concerned. One becomes slightly uneasy when Augus-
tine and Orosius, for example, are called to the defence of the medieval
church; and one becomes decidedly uncomfortable when Irenaeus, Tertul-
lian, and Jerome, inter alia, join their ranks. If, as would generally be
accepted, the medieval period began in ca. A.D. 600, why is this study so
heavily weighted with names which evidently belong to the patristic
period? This question is not sufficiently answered by the author's own
statement of intent to call upon early church sources.
Similarly, in Emmerson's "Conclusion: Antichrist in the Renaissance"
(pp. 204-237), the Renaissance appears to be confused with the Reforma-
tion from a chronological standpoint. Bale, Tyndale, and Foxe, although
they may have been influenced by Renaissance thought, are essentially
BOOK REVIEWS 367
Reformation figures, and the authors whom Emmerson cites as evidence of

the vitality of the medieval tradition would, almost without exception, be
more correctly categorized as writers of the Counter-Reformation rather
than of the Renaissance. All in all, one feels that a more accurate title for
Emmerson's conclusion would be "Antichrist in the Reformation." Im-
portant as this final chapter unquestionably is to the study as a whole, it
has very little to do with a Renaissance Antichrist.
The second, and related, weakness—one upon which a more severe
critic might conclude that the author's thesis almost founders—concerns
the use of sources. Emmerson cites patristic sources much too frequently as
evidence of views considered to have been held during the Middle Ages.
The distinction between early and medieval thought is, in fact, repeatedly
blurred. It is difficult to see, for example, how Lactantius (ca. A.D. 240-320)
could have condemned a medieval legend (p. 29). And surely, it is not
permissible to cite Origen, or Victorinus, or Chrysostom as representative
medieval commentators, particularly in tandem with Rupert of Deutz, or
Peter Lombard, or Rabanus Maurus (see especially chap. 1 and also p. 97
in chap. 3). Admittedly, Emmerson usually quotes medieval writers along-
side the patristic sources, and this must be conceded to validate the study as
a whole, even though most references to medieval writers are to reprints or
standard collections such as Migne's Patrologiae or the various series of
the Early English Text Society. It remains true, however, that the study
would have been stronger for less dependence on the Greek and Latin
early-church fathers and for greater dependence on medieval source mate-
rial in primary form.
Only at one point does Emmerson's delineation of the Antichrist tra-
dition falter, and that is in the conclusion, where there appears to be some
uncertainty over the Protestant identification of Antichrist. Thus, in
answer to the seminal question as to who is Antichrist, Emmerson replies
that in Reformation thought it is both the Papacy ("the Protestant identi-
fication," p. 206) and "all, including Mohammedans, who persecute the
true church" (p. 211). Emmerson is accurate in pointing to the general
Protestant view that the Papacy as an institution, rather than any indi-
vidual pope, constituted Antichrist; but he is less than accurate to gloss
over the fact that Luther and many who followed him conceived of
Antichrist as a dualistic eschatological power composed of an eastern
Antichrist and a western Antichrist—Turk and Papacy, respectively. Both
are necessary to a full understanding of Antichrist in the thinking of most
Reformation writers, a point which Emmerson seems to have missed.
Moreover, to plead that in making comparison between Reformation
and medieval interpretation on five major questions, there is heavy depen-
dence on English Protestant writings "for the sake of brevity" (p. 211) is
really rather weak, particularly in view of the fact that the Protestant tradi-
tion was much wider than that which flourished in England, and, more-
over, was elsewhere equally as concerned with the identification of
Antichrist as were the English interpreters. Once again, the question of
relevant sources raises its head.
Despite these reservations, Emmerson has provided an important addi-
tion to our understanding of the Antichrist tradition, and has given a fresh
warning to the unwary who might be tempted to jump to unwarranted
conclusions concerning the enigmatic figure of Antichrist. The book is
copiously and accurately documented with no less than seventy pages of
tightly-packed footnotes, and it carries an impressive bibliography. It has
an Index of Biblical Texts and also a General Index which, although
lengthy, is weakened by excessive omissions.
The book is pleasant to the eye and is well-produced, although con-
taining some interesting typographical errors. Thus, "Elias the Thisbite"
(p. 99) should probably be "Elias the Tishbite"; "worhiped" (p. 152)
should be "worshipped" (or in the American spelling "worshiped"); and
Elizabeth's "ascension" (p. 227) should probably be her "accession," which
would presumably have been more to the liking of her bishops. And we
should not conclude that Simon Magus (p. 27) is a magician with musical
abilities since he performs wonders and "sings"!
Such minor blemishes do not, of course, affect the medieval theology
of Antichrist, a theology which has been amply and adequately investi-
gated in this study. Initial apprehensions about a professor of English
(Emmerson's position at Walla Walla College) venturing into the arena of
medieval theology are sufficiently dispelled by the work itself, and the
book as a whole confirms its author as a mature, informed, and fluent
scholar.
Avondale College BRYAN W. BALL
Cooranbong, N.S.W. 2265
Australia
Forell, George Wolfgang. The Luther Legacy. Minneapolis: Augsburg

Publishing House, 1983. 79 pages. Paperback, $3.95.
For anyone, young person or adult, who does not wish to plow
through any of the definitive works on Luther's life and thought, Forell's
little book is a good introduction. Written in an uncomplicated, yet pre-
cise, readable style, it captivates the reader's attention with all of the
salient facts of the great Reformer's life. It is obvious that the author is
well informed and is able vividly to portray Luther in his historical setting
BOOK REVIEWS 369
by bringing to the subject his own vast knowledge of Reformation history

and European history of that time.
There is something for the more astute and mature reader, too, as the
author's stated intention is to share what, in his opinion, is Luther's
legacy. One reads on with intense interest to discover just what it might be,
and is not disappointed.
Luther's legacy, as pointed out by Forell, falls into several categories:
(1) Luther has taught us that reformation "must be a permanent element
in the life of the Christian church. . . . Only a church that is willing to be
reformed today can honestly claim Luther as its reformer" (p. 76).
(2) Luther took theology into the home, the street, and the places of busi-
ness and government. "When the church makes theology a secret science
understandable only to an intellectual elite, it has betrayed the heritage of
Luther" (ibid.). (3) Reformation comes not by way of a person, but by way
of The Person, the Word of God incarnate—Jesus Christ the Lord. "We
could not celebrate Luther's birthday better than by beginning a serious
study of the Bible in all our churches" (p. 78). (4) Luther taught us that
salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Therefore, "a
church that is socially, radically, intellectually, or even morally exclusive
does not take Luther very seriously" (ibid.). Indeed, the "legacy of Luther
lives most faithfully wherever God's Word is proclaimed regardless of race
or social class, nationality or sex" (p. 79).
As far as this reviewer is concerned, the heart of the book is to be
found in Forell's comment concerning Luther's performance at the Diet of
Worms (April 17-18, 1521): "The strength of Luther's position resided in
his unwillingness to play politics. In a very political meeting, he caught
everybody off guard by talking about loyalty to the Word of God" (pp. 53,
55). Luther's example in this regard needs to be emulated today if the
Church is to experience continual reformation and renewal, and if the
world is to be impressed and attracted by the Church's witness.
As I read, my mind conjured up images of a more youthful Forell, who
back in the late 1950s and early 1960s lectured to us students in Systematic
Theology I, II, and III, at the old Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary
in Maywood, Illinois. The passion for his subject still burns.
Andrews University C. RAYMOND HOLMES
Kaiser, Walter C., Jr. Toward Old Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983. xiv + 345 pp. f 14.95.
The author is Academic Dean and Professor of Old Testament and

Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield,
Illinois. This treatment of OT ethics stands side by side with his "toward"
volumes on OT theology (first published in 1978) and OT interpretation

(first published in 1981 by Baker).
Kaiser tackles in this present tome a sensitive and difficult topic.
Fewer than a half dozen scholars in the past 100 years have published
volumes on the subject before us (W. A. Yarrel in 1883, W. S. Bruce in 1895
[2d ed. 1912], J. M. Powis Smith in 1923, Johannes Hempel in 1938
[rev. ed. in 1964], and H. van Oyen in 1967). The author in no way hides
the fact that he is most profoundly influenced by the approach of W. S.
Bruce.
Kaiser opens his volume with an extensive review of issues on the
method and design of OT ethics (pp. 1-78). After he describes the devel-
opment of this discipline and sketches concisely such major systems to OT
ethics as those designated the sociological approach (cf. J. Hempel), the
moral.-theology approach (L. Hodgson), the synchronic approach (Th. C.
Vriezen), the diachronic approach (H. Mitchell, W. Eichrodt), and the
central-theme approach (J. Muilenburg, W. Kornfeld), he proposes and
follows the "combination approach that includes elements of the syn-
chronic, diachronic, central theme approach [sic] along with the exegetical
studies of summarizing texts and apologetic analysis of key moral difficul-
ties in the canon" (p. 21). This "combination approach" Kaiser labels the
"comprehensive approach" (p. 22), which actually follows, by and large,
the methodology propounded by W. S. Bruce in 1895. One wonders
whether the combination/comprehensive approach can indeed include the
methodological diversity and the resulting conclusions of the synchronic,
diachronic, and central-theme approaches (with their respective unique-
nesses) without a radical reinterpretation and readjustment of the respec-
tive methodological and presuppositional undergirdings.
It is best to allow Kaiser to define his own methodology. His "com-
prehensive approach" is diachronically organized along the biblical prog-
ress of revelation and also centrically unified by means of the theme of
"holiness," which is essential to God. Those who recall that Kaiser treats
his volume on OT theology by means of the theme of "promise/rest" may
wonder why this central theme of the OT cannot function for OT ethics.
Could it be that its centrality is challenged by the "holiness" theme? Or
could it mean that it really is not as central as it was claimed to be? Or is
there such a hiatus between theology and ethics that both need a respective
unifying theme?
The OT has a foundational basis, claims Kaiser, "for formulating
New Testament ethics or any kind of Christian ethics" (p. 33). Those
writers who argue that the NT alone provides an adequate basis for moral
theory and action are declared to be "certainly mistaken." OT ethics is not
"an optional luxury" to be discussed but the proper foundation for all
biblical, theological, or Christian ethical theory. This does not mean that
the OT is the final voice. Four limitations are placed on OT ethics:
BOOK REVIEWS 371
(a) "National limitations" pertain to certain laws that involve the nation
of Israel; (b) "historical limitations" pertain to permitted things such as
slavery, polygamy, and a low view of women; (c) "legalistic limitations"
pertain to Israel's own failure of recognizing the spiritual value of the
law, and (d) "materialistic limitations" relate to the sense of material
prosperity.
The question of the validity of the law in its various forms and appli-
cations comes into the discussion. Kaiser speaks of the "threefold division
of the law" as the distinction between "the civil, ceremonial, and moral
law of God" in the OT (p. 44). He sees this division in relation to the
"heavy" and "lighter" or "lesser laws" of the NT, the latter being the
"civil and ceremonial" laws from which the Lawgiver himself releases us.
Against the various positions of contemporary ethicists who propose
limited and non-normative usages of the Bible for today's ethical issues,
Kaiser proposes that "ethics and the Bible go together" (p. 57) and points
to "the organic perfection and truthfulness of God in each and every reve-
latory event and disclosure of his Word" (p. 63), despite the Bible's time-
relatedness being foundational for today's ethical systems. Thus, the
dichotomy between law and grace is abolished. Even in the Abrahamic and
Davidic covenants, requirements were laid down and were not uncon-
ditional as far as the human partners are concerned. OT ethics is deonto-
logical because the appeal to obedience is not placed on the human
subject, but upon the will of a holy God who issued commands. In this
sense, the Tightness or wrongness of a rule or an action is not contingent
upon its results, but on the will of a God who is holy. The central
organizing tenet of OT ethics is based in the holiness of the character
of God.
The second major part of this publication is entitled, "Summarizing
Moral Texts in Old Testament Ethics" (pp. 79-137). The Decalogue receives
attention first (pp. 80-95). But this reviewer is quite disappointed with the
author's treatment of the Ten Commandments. Kaiser is not in touch with
the great expositions of the last 100 years on the meaning and applicability
of the Ten Commandments for today, while he affirms that the Decalogue
is still valid for today.
For Kaiser, the Sabbath commandment is of a mixed order, having a
ceremonial aspect in that it is fixed to the seventh day (one could suppose
from his argumentation that any day of the week is acceptable for today's
believer) and a moral aspect that refers to restoration, creation, and rest.
One wonders on what internal basis the ceremonial aspect can be found,
when Creation—which is assigned to the moral aspect—is the rationale for
rest on the seventh day because God at first rested on that day himself!
The second passage treated in this part of the volume is the "Book of
the Covenant" (Exod 20:22-23:33). The others that follow are "the Law
of Holiness" (Lev 18-20) and the laws of Deuteronomy (Deut 12-25). The
latter are parallel to the laws of the Decalogue, as W. Schultz, Hermann

Schulz, and recently Stephen Kaufman have argued.
Part III deals with the "Content of Old Testament Ethics" (pp. 139-
244) and is divided into sections such as "holiness as a way of life" (in
which it is affirmed that "holiness" is the central organizing feature of OT
ethics), "holiness in the family and society," "holiness in regard for life,"
"holiness in marriage and sex," "holiness in wealth and possessions,"
"holiness in obtaining and using truth," and "holiness in motive and
heart."
Part IV treats "Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament" (pp. 247-
304). The key moral difficulties discussed here involve the divine repen-
tance, jealousy, and hate; the hardening of man's heart; the wrath of God;
charges against acts required by God, such as Abraham's sacrificing of
Isaac; and the extermination of the men, women, and children inhabiting
Canaan. Kaiser concludes, "God's character and the acts he requires are
fully consistent with everything that both testaments would lead us to
expect in our God. The problem usually centers in a deficiency in our view
of things and our inability to properly define terms or grasp the whole of
the subject" (p. 269).
The OT also holds up men and women whose lives were not in every
respect exemplary. Kaiser notes incisively that divine approval of an indi-
vidual in one aspect or area of life does not mean that God approved all
aspects of that person's life and conduct.
The concluding section of this fourth part of the volume treats the
allegedly deficient OT view of women and of slaves, and of favoritism for
the nation of Israel, as well as the severity of such sanctions as Psalms of
cursing (the so-called imprecatory psalms), the death penalty, and the law
of "an eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth" (lex talionis).
Part V explores the relationship of OT ethics and NT applications
(pp. 307-314). It takes the form of a conclusion. The question of the valid-
ity of the law is raised and answered by reference to Paul's view of the law,
wherein the law is affirmed but legalism is denied. "There is no contrast
between what the Old Testament law required and what the New Testa-
ment enjoined" (p. 311). For Kaiser, the "moral law" continues to function
and to provide the standard of human conduct and is a coercive force help-
ing the redeemed. "The Ten Commandments are not what has been done
away with (2 Cor 3:11)" (p. 313). Only Christ can release the church from
the laws no longer in force, namely the "civil and ceremonial" laws, which
are the lesser commandments (p. 312). Kaiser concludes his stimulating
book as follows: "Only the 'obedience of faith' can show the real purposes
of the law in the life of the believers and thus allow them to appreciate the
gift of Old Testament ethics" (p. 314).
BOOK REVIEWS 373
This review is perhaps somewhat longer than usual, but this is on

account of the rarity of publications on the topic of OT ethics. Also, I
would state that although in the foregoing paragraphs I have raised some
basic issues relating to Kaiser's volume, his work is a serious attempt to
come to grips with OT ethics in a refreshing way. The cheap law/gospel
and simplistic OT/NT or old-covenant/new-covenant dichotomies are
avoided, and the Bible is set forth so as to be seen as a whole, without
denying the varieties of emphasis it contains.
The indexes of texts, names, subjects, and Hebrew words enhance the
usefulness of this tome. I would urge that in any future printing all
Hebrew terms be transliterated, so that the person without a knowledge of
the Hebrew alphabet can use this volume with maximum benefit. It indeed
deserves that broad a readership.
Andrews University GERHARD F. HASEL
LaRondelle, Hans K. The Israel of God in Prophecy. Berrien Springs,

Midi.: Andrews University Press, 1983. 226 pp. $14.95/$9.95.
Hans K. LaRondelle studied under G. C. Berkouwer at the Free Uni-

versity of Amsterdam. He seems to have inherited the latter's ability to
combine rigorous exegesis with a worshipful faith in the God of Scripture.
Known among his students as a dynamic and seminal lecturer,
LaRondelle, in The Israel of God in Prophecy, attempts to lay the
groundwork for a biblical hermeneutic with respect to the interpretation of
prophecy. This attempt is carried forward in continual dialogue with
Dispensationalism.
LaRondelle's basic presupposition is that Scripture is the Word of
God and, as a result, is to be understood as a spiritual unity (pp. 3, 8). This
presupposition leads him to the following basic approach: (1) Texts are to
be interpreted in the form in which we find them in the canonical text
(p. 3). (2) The "analogy-of-Scripture" principle, whereby related passages
unlock each other's meanings, is valid (p. 3). (3) Unfulfilled prophecies
must be studied in the light of NT fulfillments. Thus the NT becomes the
ultimate norm for the interpretation of the unfulfilled prophecies of the
OT pertaining to Israel (p. 8). (4) All prophetic interpretation must be
related to the nature and work of Christ (pp. 4-8).
The third point is elaborated in the second chapter as the crucial issue
in prophetic interpretation (pp. 10-20). LaRondelle accuses Dispensation-
alism of treating the OT essentially as a closed canon with respect to
prophecy. However, the OT, by itself, cries out for completion; it looks
forward to a consummation. The NT claims to explicate that consumma-

tion, to be the authoritative interpreter of the OT. As a result, LaRondelle
feels that the basic principles for the interpretation of unfulfilled OT pro-
phecies must be grounded in the way the NT interprets those prophecies
that are already fulfilled.
After discussing what he considers the extremes of literal (Dispensa-
tional) and allegorical exegesis (pp. 23-32), LaRondelle sets forth his
understanding of the hermeneutical method NT writers were using when
they proclaimed that OT prophecies had been fulfilled. He calls this
method "typological exegesis" (pp. 35-55). Typological exegesis is not
allegorism; it sees, behind the words of the human author, God's intended
meaning in Scripture—a meaning made clear by the subsequent revelation
of the Holy Spirit (p. 46; cf. p. 75).
As an example of NT typological exegesis, LaRondelle offers the
interpretation of Ps 110:1-4 given in Heb 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12, 13; 12:1; and in
Acts 2:36. He states: "The context of these Psalm verses indicates that this
divine promise applied first of all to the reign of the Davidic King on his
earthly throne in Jerusalem (vss. 2, 3). However, both the author of
Hebrews and the apostle Peter transfer . . . the throne of David from its
earthly location in Jerusalem to God's throne in heaven" (p. 42). This is
only possible if Christ, in his sitting down at the right hand of God, is
seen as the fulfillment of the promises to David. Thus, the NT writers
studied the OT in the light of the life of Christ; and, guided by the Holy
Spirit, they drew conclusions as to its moral and theological implication^.
LaRondelle then gives numerous examples of such "Christological inter-
pretation" in the NT (pp. 60-78).
After a chapter on the theological significance and mission of Israel in
the OT (pp. 81-96), LaRondelle comes to the nexus of his debate with
Dispensationalism, the role of Israel in the NT era (pp. 98-121). In opposi-
tion to Dispensationalism, he argues that the NT sees the Church as the
true, messianic remnant of Israel. By ordaining the twelve disciples, Christ
constituted a new Israel to replace the literal twelve tribes of Israel
(Matt 23:32; 21:43). This new Israel is made up of Christ-believing people
from all nations (Matt 8:11-12). The NT does not postpone God's king-
dom, but sees it as having its fulfillment in the life and work of Christ
(Acts 2:23; 4:28; cf. Ps 2:1-2). The church is not an unforeseen entity in the
OT (Acts 2:16-21; cf. Joel 2:28-32); it is part of God's predetermined plan
(Eph 2:11-16; cf. Eph 1:4-14). The promises God made to Israel are ful-
filled in and by the church (1 Pet 2:9; cf. Exod 19:5, 6; 1 Pet 2:10; also cf.
Hos 1:10; 2:23). This is especially true of Hosea's predicted future restora-
tion of Israel (Acts 13:47; cf. Isa 49:6; Acts 26:22-23).
Having said this, LaRondelle undergirds his position by a careful
examination of a number of "problem texts" which have long been in
BOOK REVIEWS 375
dispute between Dispensationalists and other Christians: Gal 6:16 (pp. 108-
111); Jer 31:31-34 as applied in Hebrews (pp. 114-121); Rom 9-11 (pp. 124-
133); Amos 9:11-12 as applied in Acts 15:16-18 (pp. 147-150); Isa 11:10-12
(pp. 150-160); Matt 23:39 (pp. 160-164); Luke 21:24 (pp. 164-167); and
Dan 9:24-27 (pp. 170-182). Along the way he adds a study of the territorial
promises made to Israel in the OT as seen from the NT perspective
(pp. 135-145).
In the final chapter (pp. 186-204), LaRondelle deals with the relation-
ship of the Tribulation to Christ's Second Advent. Based on the exegesis of
passages where such terms as uapouoia, dTtoKaXuvyu;, and fercKpdveta are
used, LaRondelle concludes that the Tribulation precedes the parousia
and is related to the church, the eschatological Israel. LaRondelle feels that
Pretribulationism fails to prepare the church for what is coming and thus
offers a false hope.
In the conclusion (pp. 207-210), LaRondelle suggests that it is not
accurate to say that the church has replaced Israel, rather that it continues
Israeli It has replaced the Jewish nation as Israel. The NT has only one
olive tree (Rom 11), one spiritual temple (Eph 2), one apocalyptic woman
(Rev 12), and one New Jerusalem (Rev 21) for God's people in all eras.
Although LaRondelle does not summarize the NT "methodology for
the interpretation of OT texts," the following principles seem to stand out
at various places in the book:
1. Since Christ is the God of both the OT and NT, the Bible is a
spiritual unity in him. Thus, all prophetic interpretation must find its
center in Christ.
2. The Christian Church is the fulfillment of God's OT promises of a
new covenant and the restoration of Israel.
3. As a result, the NT universalizes these covenant promises. Israel is
no longer limited ethnically or geographically, but finds its fulfillment in
a world-wide spiritual nation—the church.
Not all will be happy with LaRondelle's conclusions. Dispensational-
ists, obviously, would be uncomfortable on a number of points. For one
thing, Dispensationalism today includes a variety of viewpoints. LaRon-
delle in his book confronts a more "popular Dispensationalism" with
which many Dispensational scholars also find fault. Most Dispensational
scholars do not stake everything on the kind of literalism that LaRondelle
is attacking. They would probably agree with LaRondelle's fundamental
assumption that there is only one way of salvation for both OT Israel and
the Christian Church. Another arguable point is whether the NT use of
the OT necessarily excludes literal application of every single OT pro-
phecy in relation to the second coming of Christ. (I am indebted to my
good friend and colleague Dale DeWitt, Associate Professor of Bible at
Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who has helped me to
understand better the Dispensational perspective.) Nevertheless, LaRon-

delle's critique provides a fresh approach to prophetic study which Dis-
pensationalism cannot afford to ignore.
The more critical scholar will be uncomfortable with LaRondelle's
high view of inspiration. Nevertheless, the book sheds much light on the
problem of how the NT writers used the OT and the things of Israel in
their existential situation. While critical scholarship by and large rejects
the NT world-view, it is interested in understanding that world-view, and
LaRondelle's book makes a powerful contribution to that understanding.
In conclusion, LaRondelle writes in a moving style that leaves the
reader with a sense of windows opening on Scripture, letting in fresh light
and air. The book is a rich source of parallels between the OT and the NT,
resulting in what is virtually a mini-theology of biblical prophecy. (A ran-
dom sampling indicates that LaRondelle cites nearly 2000 biblical pas-
sages in the volume.)
It is this reviewer's judgment that, regardless of one's perspective, the
reader interested in biblical prophecy will consider the perusal of LaRon-
delle's book to be time well spent.
Andrews University JON PAULIEN
Larson, Bruce. Luke. Vol. 3 in The Communicator's Commentary, ed.

Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Waco, Texas: World Books, 1983. 347 pp. $14.95.
The purpose of The Communicator's Commentary series is to place

into the hands of "pastors, teachers, Bible study leaders, church school
teachers, small group enablers, and individual Christians" a commentary
that will give a penetrating view of New Testament Scripture, and will
facilitate practical communication of "the abundant life" (p. 7).
Considering each believer in Jesus Christ as one who is called to
communicate the Gospel, The Communicator's Commentary attempts to
make the message of the New Testament books readily understandable for
busy preachers and laymen, hoping, in turn, they will be adequately pre-
pared for the communication of the Word to congregations and classes.
This commentary series does not pretend to be a scholarly study. Its
approach is unsophisticated, and is designed to appeal to and inform those
who have had little or no training in biblical studies. The titles used in
outlining the Gospel of Luke illustrate the attempt to make this Gospel as
practical as possible; e.g., "Holy Horticulture: Roots or Fruits: 3:1-20";
"Worship: Duty, Diversion or Dynamite: 6:1-19"; "Jesus and the New Psy-
chiatry: 8:22-39"; "How to Make Your Money Work for You: 16:1-31"; etc.
BOOK REVIEWS 377
It is difficult, at first, to take a commentary seriously in which there

are no word studies, no examination of grammar and syntax, and no
informative articles on the politics, economy, and religious and social cus-
toms of the day. However, if one keeps in mind that the aim of The Com
municator's Commentary is to make better "communicators" out of those
who are not trained in biblical studies, what is lacking in the technical
handling of NT books is more than compensated for by the practical
application of Scripture.
The commentary on Luke has an "Editor's Preface" in which the
goals for the series are laid out. A short introduction deals with author-
ship, date of composition, and a preview of several themes found in Luke.
The New King James Bible provides the text for the commentary. At the
end there is a brief bibliography with 34 entries. A number of the standard
commentaries on Luke are listed, together with several general works on
the Synoptic Gospels. This bibliography would be strengthened, however,
if some of the older works from the beginning of this century were omitted
and newer studies were listed, e.g., the works of I. Howard Marshall.
Larson is to be commended for his readable, and often entertaining,
comments on Luke's Gospel. Several times I found myself chuckling over
his illustrations and anecdotes. Any preacher, professional or lay, will find
this commentary to be a gold mine of useful stories for sermon illustra-
tions. The practical applications of passages from Luke are virtual seed
beds of sermon ideas.
Although the reader of this commentary who is trained in biblical
studies will probably find it to be superficial, a lay preacher will find it to
be a valuable source of ideas and illustrations. Without a question, The
Communicator's Commentary series will fill a great need.
Andrews University GEORGE E. RICE
Singer, Karl Helmut. Die Metalle Gold, Silber, Bronze, Kupfer und Eisen
im Alien Testament und ihre Symbolik. Forschung zur Bibel, vol. 43.
Wurzburg: Echter Verlag, 1980. 195 pp. DM 39.00 (paper).
This volume is the published form of a University of Mainz disserta-

tion, investigating the terms for the metals of gold, silver, bronze, copper
and iron in the OT and their symbolic meaning. The author has divided
his study into three major parts: Part A consists of an exploration of the
terminology of the five metals, Part B compares the metals with each
other, and Part C investigates the symbolism of these metals. The focus of
this monograph is not so much on the archaeological aspects of these
metals, a subject treated extensively by other scholars, but rather on the

interrelationship of these five metals and their symbolical connections.
The usual term for "gold" in the OT is zahdb, but such terms as
hdrus, paz, ketem, and d'hab also designate gold and may serve to distin-
guish its quality or purity. The comparison with gold reveals value,
purity, and preciousness. Gold is the "royal metal." Only in Dan 2:38 is
the king identified with gold. Generally, gold reveals the wealth, splendor,
and power of the king or deity. The purer the gold, the higher the dignity
and splendor of what is symbolized by gold.
The Hebrew term for "silver" is kesep, while in Aramaic it is k'sap.
This metal is employed in various connections, and in particular as a
monetary measure or means. Silver does not symbolize permanence and
durability, but communicates something that is threatened in its value and
insecure in a crisis. It is of "second rank" as a metal and symbolizes that
which is of inferior value as compared to the royal metal gold. As far as
Dan 2:32 is concerned, the silver kingdom is inferior to that of gold and
reveals a lesser status. The inferior nature of the symbolism is carried on
throughout the OT, including the usage of silver in cultic or political
spheres.
The Hebrew term for "bronze" or "copper" is nehoSet, and in Aramaic
the term is n'hds. It is not clear in every case of usage of these terms
whether it is bronze or copper that is in view. These metals were com-
monly used for making utensils and tools before iron became widely
utilized and even during the time when iron was in common use for such
purposes. On the basis of the strength inherent in bronze, this metal
became a symbol of strength, hardness, and insurmountability. At the
same time, bronze/copper is of lesser value than the precious metals of
gold and silver; and as such, it symbolizes a worsening of the situation as
compared with what is signified by gold and silver. Indeed, an additional
and increasing inferiority is communicated (cf. Dan 2:39).
The term for "iron" is barzel in Hebrew and parzel in Aramaic. The
etymology is still uncertain. It derives either from the Hittite (a Caucasian
origin?) or from Sumerian (cf. G. F. Hasel, "Iron," ISBE 2 [1982]: 880-882).
Iron was known for its strength and durability. In terms of value, in
comparison to gold, silver, and bronze, iron was a less valuable commodity.
The sequence of the four metals of gold, silver, bronze, and iron in
Dan 2 does not mean from "the strongest to the less strong" (pace
O. Ploger, J. Goettsberger), but rather an increasing strength (p. 131). I feel
that Singer has not captured the symbolic aspect of the four-empire
schema adequately. It is twofold in its symbolic nature, the sequence of
gold-silver-bronze-iron in Dan 2 indicating (a) a decreasing value, and
(b) an increasing strength. Singer makes a contribution, however, by
BOOK REVIEWS 379
noting that iron also communicates symbolically that the times are getting
worse for God's people, so that the iron period of time is one of hardship
and difficulty for the pious ones. I disagree with Singer once more,
however, in his attempt to link Persian influence to the metal sequence in
Dan 2. New archaeological information indicates that there is a common
Near-Eastern pattern of metal sequence which goes back to Neo-Babylonian
sources predating those of Persian (or Greek) provenance (see G. F. Hasel,
"The Four World Empires in Daniel 2 Against Its Near Eastern Environ-
ment," /SOT 12 [1979]:17-30).
This monograph is broad in its scope as regards the metals under
discussion. The author treats the OT and some deuterocanonical texts.
Unfortunately, no comparison is made with the symbolism of these metals
in the larger ancient Near-Eastern environment. It would have been
instructive to observe the meaning of these metals in Babylonian, Assyrian,
Ugaritic, Hittite, and Egyptian texts and to have compared these results
with those pertaining to the OT.
Andrews University GERHARD F. HASEL
BOOK NOTICES
ELLEN S. ERBES and KENNETH A. STRAND
Inclusion in this section does not preclude the subsequent review of a book. Where two
prices are given, separated by a slash, the second is for the paperback edition.
Carmignac, Jean. La naissance des Evan- etc., in addition to providing introduc-

giles Synoptiques. Paris: O.E.I.L., tions to culture, geography, and history.
1984. 102 pp. Paperback, French Francs Also furnishes details for regional itiner-
80.00. aries and walking tours, and includes
Suggests that the synoptic gospels have seventeen original maps, numerous pen-
been edited in a Semitic (Hebrew) lan- and-ink illustrations, and some 115
guage prior to their translation into photos. Special emphasis is placed on
Greek.-E.S.E. points of interest in Anabaptist and Men-
nonite history. — K.A.S.
Gage, Warren Austin. The Gospel of Gen
esis: Studies in Protology and Eschatol- Gritsch, Eric. W. Martin-God's Court
ogy. Winona Lake, Ind.: Carpenter Jester: Lutfier in Retrospect. Philadel-
Books, 1984. xiii + 142 pp. Paperback, phia: Fortress Press, 1983. xiv + 289 pp.
$8.95. Paperback, $14.95.
Stresses that each of the major themes in In addition to a full-scale biography of
Gen 1-7 (the doctrines of God, man, Luther (though a brief and fast-moving
sin, redemption, and judgment) can be one), this volume contains two further
traced through the rest of Scripture, and major sections. The first of these, enti-
that these first chapters of the Bible are tled "Neurologic Heritage," treats such
integrated "with the rest of Genesis and topics as "Scripture and Tradition,"
Genesis with the rest of the Old Tes- "Christ and Caesar," etc.; and the sec-
tament and the Old with the New." ond includes chapters on "A Christocen-
-E.S.E. tric Theology," "A Cruciform Church,"
and others related to Christian life and
Gleysteen, Jan. Mennonite Tourguide to practice. Written in an eminently read-
Western Europe. Scottdale, Pa., and able style, the book is also extensively
Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1984. documented with endnotes, and includes
340 pp. Paperback, $12.95 in U.S.A., a bibliography and indexes. — K.A.S.
$16.85 in Canada.
A helpful resource tool for both general Haglund, Erik. Historic Motifs in the
and Reformation-minded tourists to the Psalms. Coniectanea Biblica, Old Tes-
nine Western-European countries that tament Series, 23. Malmo, Sweden:
are treated: Switzerland, Germany, Gleerup/Liber, 1984. 144 pp. Paper-
Austria, Liechtenstein, Holland, Bel- back, Swedish Crowns 80.00.
gium, Luxembourg, France, and Italy. This Th.D. dissertation investigates "the
This volume contains a wealth of practi- cultic function of the 'historical psalms'
cal information on such matters as cli- and their importance in the OT history
mate, currency, holidays, store hours, of ideas," and "the differences between
380
BOOK NOTICES 381
deuteronomic-deuteronomistic texts and Michigan, this volume contains an array

other material." Methodologically, of articles by other well-known special
Gunkel's criteria for "Gattungsbestim- ists in the field and touches upon several
mung" are used.—E.S.E. major areas in which Mendenhall him
self has shown considerable interest and
Holmes, Arthur F. Contours of a World in which, in some cases, he has done pio
View. Studies in a Christian World neering work. Socio-political conditions,
View, vol. 1. Grand Rapids, Mich.: the covenant, and prophecy in ancient
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Com Israel are among such areas treated; and
pany, 1983. ix + 240 pp. Paperback, a number of chapters are devoted to ar
$8.95. chaeological concerns and discoveries
This is the initial volume in a projected pertaining to the ancient Near East. A
ten-volume series (series title noted bibliography of Mendenhall's produc
above), sponsored by the Institute of Ad tions is included. — K.A.S.
vanced Christian Studies and under the
general editorship of Carl F. H. Henry. Kubo, Sakae, and Specht, Walter F. So
Holmes's Contours of a World View pro Many Versions?: 20th Century English
vides an introductory philosophical Versions of the Bible. Revised and en
framework for the endeavor, which pro larged edition. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
poses to elucidate Christianity's relation Zondervan Publishing House, 1983. 401
ship to modern culture, both secular and pp. Paperback, $9.95.
religious.-K.A.S. A considerably expanded update of the
original edition of 1975. Three added
Holmes, C. Raymond. Sing a New Song: chapters treat the New King James Ver
Worship Renewal for Adventists Today. sion, the Reader's Digest Bible, and a
Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews Uni number of the recent colorful "free" ver
versity Press, 1984. xii + 190 pp. Paper sions (Jordan's "Cotton Patch Version,"
back, $8.95. Edlngton's "The Word Made Fresh,"
Discusses the significance of, and means and several others). Also, various chap
for, relating liturgy to basic Seventh-day ters in the earlier edition have now been
Adventist theological positions. The indi enlarged to give further information on
cated purpose is enhancement of the cor versions already treated in 1975, espe
porate worship experience. Included, in cially in cases where publication of the
an Appendix, are some creative sugges OT portion of such versions has taken
tions for order of service (these extend place since 1975. A glossary of some
beyond the weekly worship service to in thirty-three technical terms is another
clude communion, baptism, and baby new inclusion in the present edition.
dedication). The volume contains a glos -K.A.S.
sary and a bibliography.—K.A.S.
LaRondelle, Hans K. Deliverance in the
Huffmon, H. B.; Spina, F. A.; and Green, Psalms: Messages of Hope for Today.
A. R. W. The Quest for the Kingdom of Berrien Springs, Mich.: First Impres
God: Studies in Honor of George E. sions Publishers, 1984. vii + 210 pp.
Mendenhall. WinonaLake, Ind.: Eisen- $12.50/$8.50.
brauns, 1983. viii + 316 pp. $20.00. A fairly comprehensive introduction to
As a Festschrift honoring a distin the religious significance, poetic style,
guished OT scholar of the University of and theology of the Psalter, plus an
analysis of a selection of eighteen psalms. and enlarges upon his position in earlier
The eighteen psalms are explained first books that the idea of a "secret rapture"
in their own historical context and then of the church originated with Mary Mac-
from a NT christological perspective. donald in Scotland in 1830. One of sev
The subtitle "Messages of Hope for To eral appendixes provides an interesting
day" is apropos, for the volume seeks to discussion of Lacunza, who sometimes
provide fresh, helpful, and stimulating has been considered (incorrectly so) as
insights that are useful and practical for holding a pretribulation-rapture view
our own day. —K.A.S. akin to that of present-day Dispensation-
alism. -K.A.S.
LaSor, William Sanford. The Truth about
Armageddon: What the Bible Says about Meyers, Eric M., and Strange, James F.
the End Times. New York and San Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early
Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, Christianity: The Social and Historical
1982. xii + 226 pp. Paperback, $7.95. Setting of Palestinian Judaism and Chris
Contains a sequential series of studies tianity. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon,
emerging from presentations given by 1981. 207 pp. Paperback, $7.95.
LaSor in Presbyterian churches in Pasa Attempts to reconstruct an accurate pic
dena and Hollywood, California. In ture of rabbinic Judaism and Christian
large part, the topics treated do relate to origins in Roman Palestine, integrating
"the end times" (only one chapter specifi historical literature with current ar
cally on "Armageddon," however); but chaeological findings. Suggests greater
the scope is broader, as indicated by the diversity in early Palestinian Christian
inclusion of chapters on "The Present ity, and a more extensive and more irenic
Age," "The People of God," "The Ser contact between the Jewish and Chris
vant of the Lord," "The Satanic Charac tian communities than is usually as
ter of This Age," and "The Messianic sumed.—E.S.E.
Idea." The author brings to bear his ex
tensive experience as a seminary teacher Oberman, Heiko A. The Roots of Anti-
(he is Professor Emeritus of Old Testa Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and
ment Theology at Fuller Theological Reformation. Trans. from the German
Seminary),.utilizing freely the biblical by James I. Porter. Philadelphia: For
literature, and at times treating even tress Press, 1984. xii + 163 pp. $13.95.
the historical development of concepts. A standard work on the topic, now avail
-K.A.S. able in English (originally in German:
Wurzeln des Antisemitismus: Christen-
MacPherson, Dave. The Great Rapture angst und Judenplage im Zeitalter van
Hoax. Fletcher, N.C.: New Puritan Li Humanismus und Reformation [Berlin,
brary, Inc., 1983. viii + 210pp. Paper 1981]). This book surveys the attitude
back, $5.00. toward Jews in western Europe just prior
Provides in popular style a cogent discus to and during the Reformation era,
sion of weaknesses in Pretribulationism, giving particularly detailed attention
emphasizing its late origin (not earlier to Martin Luther. Extensively docu
than 1830), and also documenting a mented.-K.A.S.
transition from belief in a very short trib
ulation period to the concept of a 31/:- Saarnivaara, Uuras. Can the Bible Be
year tribulation. The author reiterates Trusted? Old and New Testament
BOOK NOTICES 583
Introduction and Interpretation. Min Willis, Lloyd A. Archaeology in Adventist

neapolis: Osterhus Publishing House, Literature 1937-1980. Andrews Univer
1983. 808 pp. Paperback, $20.00. sity Seminary Doctoral Dissertation
Written from the conservative point of Series, vol. 7. Berrien Springs, Mich.:
view, the book deals with inspiration, re Andrews University Press, 1984. ix +
liability, and authority of the OT and 669 pp. Paperback, $12.95.
NT. Discusses liberal-critical views and Since the nineteenth century, but espe
methods. Contains short introductions to cially during the present century, the
all canonical books in the Bible, and also Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church
gives scientific and archaeological infor has shown a consistent interest in biblical
mation.—E.S.E. archaeology; but only from the 1930s on
ward have a number of SDA scholars re
ceived formal advanced training in OT
Wiklander, Bertil. Prophecy as Literature: studies and biblical archaeology. The
A Text-Linguistic and Rhetorical Ap focus of this volume is on this more re
proach to Isaiah 2-4. Coniectanea Bib- cent period. Willis surveys the general
lica, Old Testament Series, 22. MalmS, scholarly literature on biblical archaeol
Sweden: Gleerup/Liber, 1984. xiii + ogy, and then examines and analyzes
278 pp. Paperback, Swedish Crowns certain trends noticeable in SDA discus
150.00. sions of archaeology, as these trends are
This revised edition of a Th.D. disserta represented in various denominational
tion "seeks to make a contribution within books and periodicals and also in general
the field of interpretation of O.T. pro scholarly journals dealing with the field.
phetic discourse," the conclusion being (Willis's dissertation, of which the pres
that "Isa. 2-4, contrary to the opinion of ent publication represents a slightly re
most contemporary scholars, be consid vised form, was completed in 1982; and
ered as a coherent, unified and func the dissertation abstract was published
tional unit of language." —E.S.E. in AUSS 21 [1983]: 87-88).-E.S.E.
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
SEMINARY STUDIES
KENNETH A. STRAND
Editor
JAMES J. C. Cox, RAOUL DEDEREN, LAWRENCE T. GERATY,

GERHARD F. HASEL, WILLIAM H. HESSEL, GEORGE E. RICE,
LEONA G. RUNNING
Associate Editors
WILLIAM H. SHEA
Book Review Editor
ELLEN S. ERBES
Editorial Assistant
ELLEN S. ERBES
Circulation Manager
VOLUME 22 (1984)
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY PRESS

BERRIEN SPRINGS, MICHIGAN 49104, USA
ISSN 0003-2980
INDEX TO VOLUME 22 (1984)
ARTICLES
PAGE
ALTINK, WILLEM. 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 as Literary Source for

Revelation 14:6-7................................................ 187
AUGSBURGER, DANIEL A. (See below, section on "Luther-Year Conferences.")
BACCHIOCCHI, SAMUELE. Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus' Rest and the Sabbath...... 289
BLOCK, DANIEL I. Bny "mum: The Sons of Ammon......................... 197
BLUHM, HEINZ. Martin Luther as a Creative Bible Translator............... 35
BRUNIE, WILLIAM H. The Face of Martin Luther.......................... 9
EHBES, ELLEN S. (See below, section on "Luther-Year Conferences.")
HEINZ, JOHANN. Luther's Doctrine of Work and Reward................... 45
HUBBS, VALENTINE C. (See below, section on "Luther-Year Conferences.")
HYMA, ALBERT. Martin Luther in His Later Years......................... 71
KAY, THOMAS O. (See below, section on "Luther-Year Conferences.")
LANDEEN, WILLIAM M. Martin Luther's Intervention in Behalf of the
Brethren of the Common Life in Herford............................. 81
LINDER, ROBERT D. Pierre Viret's Concept of a Just War.................... 213
MALTBY, WILLIAM. (See below, section on "Luther-Year Conferences.")
PANKRATZ, HERBERT R. Luther's Utilization of Music in School and
Town in the Early Reformation.................................... 99
ROGAL, SAMUEL J. John Wesley's Arminian Magazine...................... 231
SHEA, WILLIAM H. Revelation 5 and 19 as Literary Reciprocals.............. 249
STRAND, KENNETH A. A Brief Bibliographical Survey: Books on Luther
Appearing in America During 1983 and 1984......................... 157
STRAND, KENNETH A. An Overlooked Old-Testament Background to
Revelation 11:1.................................................. 317
STRAND, KENNETH A. Current Issues and Trends in Luther Studies........... 127
STRAND, KENNETH A. Meet Martin Luther: An Introductory
Biographical Sketch.............................................. 15
(Includes a Brief Chronology of Luther's Career, pp. 25-32)
SURING, MAHGIT L. The Horn-Motifs of the Bible and the Ancient
Near East....................................................... 327
THOMPSON, GARTH D. On Pastors as Counselors........................... 341
386
INDEX 387
WILSON-KASTNER, PATRICIA. On Partaking of the Divine Nature:

Luther's Dependence on Augustine.................................. 113
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
DE ALWIS, TISSA BRIAN. Christian-Buddhist Dialogue in the Writings of

Lynn A. De Silva................................................ 349
BADENAS, ROBERTO DAVID. The Meaning of TEAOE in
Romans 10:4.................................................... 351
CANALE, FERNANDO Luis. Toward a Criticism of Theological Reason:
Time and Timelessness as Primordial Presuppositions.................. 352
CHONG, DAYTON CHIN KEONG. A Study of Self-Esteem of Delinquent
Male Adolescents and the Perceived Degree of Their Parents'
Child-Rearing Practices. .......................................... 353
GUSTAVSEN, GUNNAR A. Selected Characteristics of Home Schools
and Parents Who Operate Them.................................... 355
REPORTS ON LUTHER-YEAR CONFERENCES
AUGSBURGER, DANIEL A. The Luther Research Congress in Erfurt. ............. 181

ERBES, ELLEN S. A Quincentennial Celebration in Uppsala, Sweden,
and a Glimpse of Swedish Church History. ........................... 173
HUBBS, VALENTINE C. The Martin Luther Quincentennial Conference
of the University of Michigan......:............................... 169
KAY, THOMAS O. "Lutherfest" at Wheaton College. ....................... 167
MALTBY, WILLIAM. Quincentennial Celebration of Luther's Birth
Held at St. Louis, Missouri......................................... 165
BOOK REVIEWS
The Aramaic New Testament, Estrangelo Script, Based on the

Peshitta and Harklean Versions (Johann E. Erbes).................... 259
Ball, Bryan W. The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of
Seventh-day Adventist Belief (Richard Kenneth Emmerson)............ 357
Cassidy, Richard J., and Scharper, Philip J., eds. Political Issues in
Luke-Acts (George E. Rice)....................................... 263
Davidson, Richard M. Typology in Scripture (Niels-Erik Andreasen)......... 264
Doukhan, Jacques. Aux Fortes de I'Esperance. Essai biblique sur

les propheties de la fin (Leona Glidden Running)...................... 266
Edwards, Mark U., Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Polemics and Politics,
1531-46 (Harry Leonard)......................................... 360
Emmerson, Richard Kenneth. Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study
of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (Bryan W. Ball)........ 363
Fee, Gordon D. New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students
and Pastors (George E. Rice)...................................... 267
Forell, George Wolfgang. The Luther Legacy (C. Raymond Holmes)........ 368
Halpern, Baruch, and Levenson, Jon D., eds. Traditions in
Transformation: Turning Points in Biblical Faith
(Gerhard F. Hasel)............................................... 268
Harvey, A. E. Jesus and the Constraints of History (Herold Weiss)........... 269
Ishida, Tomoo, ed. Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and
Other Essays (William H. Shea).................................... 272
Kaiser, Walter C., Jr. Toward Old Testament Ethics
(Gerhard F. Hasel)............................................... 369
Knight, GeorgeR., ed. EarlyAdventistEducators (GeorgeW. Reid). ........ 274
LaRondelle, Hans K. The Israel of God in Prophecy (Jon Paulien)........... 373
Larson, Bruce. Luke (George E. Rice).................................. 376
Lemaire, Andre. Les ecoles et la formation de la Bible dans I'Ancien
Israel (Jacques Doukhan)......................................... 276
Meuser, Fred W. Luther the Preacher (C. Raymond Holmes)............... 278
Schein, Bruce E. Following the Way: The Setting of John's Gospel
(Sylvester Case).................................................. 279
Singer, Karl Helmut. Die Metalle Gold, Silber, Bronze, Kupfer und
Risen im Alien Testament und ihre Symbolik (Gerhard F. Hasel)........ 377
Talbert, Charles H., ed. Luke-Acts: New Perspectives from the Society
of Biblical Literature Seminar (George E. Rice)....................... 281
Tarling, Lowell. The Edges of Seventh-day Adventism
(James E. Miller)................................................. 283
BOOK NOTICES (Ellen S. Erbes).................................. 285, 380
A TRIBUTE TO MARTIN LUTHER (Kenneth A. Strand).................. 5

TRANSLITERATION OF HEBREW AND ARAMAIC
CONSONANTS
K 1 d ' - y
a n h 3 = k
3 i w 3 = ft
a T z V = J D n
g n h a = m X n
3 D t 3 = n P
MASORETIC VOWEL POINTINGS

vt , i (vocal shewa) = e
= o
= u
(DageS Forte is indicated by doubling the consonant.)
ABBREVIATIONS OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

AASOR Annual, Amer. Sch. of Or. Res. BT The Bible Translator
AB Anchor Bible BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
AcOr Ada orientalia BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
ACW Ancient Christian Writers BZAW BeiheftezurZ/*W
ADA] Annual, Dtp. of Ant. of Jordan BZNW Beihefte zur ZNW
AER American Ecclesiastical Review CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
AfO Archiv fur Orientforschung CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
AHR American Historical Review CC Christian Century
AHW \onSodea,Akkad.Handworterb. CH Church History
A]A Am. Journal of Archaeology CHR Catholic Historical Review
AJBA Austr.Journ.ofBibl.Arch. CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum
AJSL Am. Jrl., Sent. Lang. and Lit. CIJ Corp. Inscript. Judaicarum
AJT American Journal of Theology CIL Corp. Inscript. Latinarura
ANEP Anc. Near East in Pictures, CIS Corp. Inscript. Semiticarum
Pritchard, ed. CJT Canadian Journal of Theology
ANESTP Anc. Near East: Suppl. Texts and CQ Church Quarterly
Pictures, Pritchard, ed. CQR Church Quarterly Review
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts, CR Corpus Reformatorum
Pritchard. ed. CT Christianity Today
ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers CTM Concordia Theological Monthly
AnOr Analecta Orientalia CurTM Currents in Theol. and Mission
AOS American Oriental Series
DACL Diet, d'archeol. chret. et de lit.
APOT Apncr. and Pseud, of OT, Charles, ed. DOTT Docs, from OT Times, Thomas, ed.
ARG Archiv fur Reformationsgesch. DTC Diet, de theol. cath.
ARM Archives royales de Mari
ArOr Archiv Orienldlni EKL Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon
ARW Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft Enclsl Encyclopedia of Islam
ASV American Standard Version Encjud Encyclopedia judaica (1971)
ATR . Anglican Theological Review ER Ecumenical Review
AUM Andrews Univ. Monographs EvQ Evangelical Quarterly
AusBR Australian Biblical Review EvT Evangelische Theologie
AUSS Andrews Univ. Sem. Studies ExpTim Expository Times
BA Biblical Archaeologist FC Fathers of the Church
BAR Riblical Archaeologist Reader CRBS Creek, Roman, and Byz. Studies
BARev Riblical Archaeology Review HeyJ He\throp Journal
BASOR Bulletin, Amer. Sch. of Or. Res. Hib] Hibbert Journal
BCSR Bull, nf Council on Study of Rel. HR History of Religions.
Bib Biblica HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs
BibB Biblische Beitrage HTR Harvard Theological Review
BibOr Biblica et Orientalia HTS Harvard Theological Studies
HIES Still, of Isr. Explor. Society HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual
BJRL Bulletin, John Rylands Library IB Interpreter's Bible
BK Bibel und Kirche ICC International Critical Commentary
BO Bibliotheca Orientalis IDB Interpreter's Diet, of Bible
BQR Baptist Quarterly Review IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
BR Biblical Research Int Interpretation
BSac Bibliotheca Sacra 1TQ Irish Theological Quarterly
389
390
Abbreviations (cent.)
JAAR Journ., Amer.Acad. of Rel. RenQ Renaissance Quarterly
JAC Jahrb. fur Ant. und Christentum RevExp Review and Expositor
JAOS Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc. RevQ Revue de Qumrdn
JAS Journal of Asian Studies RevScRel Revue des sciences religieuses
JB Jerusalem Bible, Jones, ed. RevSe"m Revue se'mitique
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature RHE Revue d'histoire eccl^siasttque
JBR Journal of Bible and Religion RHPR Revue d'hist. et de philos. ret.
JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies RHR Revue de I'histoire des religions
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology RL Religion in Life
JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical Hist. RLA Reallexikon der Assyriologie
JEOL Jaarbericht, Ex Oriente Lux RPTK Realencykl. fiir pret. Th. u. Kirche
JES Journal of Ecumenical Studies RR Review of Religion
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies RRR Review of Religious Research
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies RS Religious Studies
JMeH Journal of Medieval History RSPT Revue des sc. phil. et theol.
JMES Journal of Middle Eastern Studies RSV Revised Standard Version
JMH Journal of Modern History RTP Revue de theol. et de phil,
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies SB Sources bibliques
JPOS Journ., Palest. Or. Soc. SBLDS Soc- of Bibl. Lit. Dissert. Ser.
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review SBLMS Soc. of Bibl. Lit. Monograph Ser.
JR Journal of Religion SBLSBS Soc. of Bibl. Lit. Sources for Bibl. Study
JRAS Journal of Royal Asiatic Society SBLTT Soc. of Bibl. Lit. Texts and Trans.
JRE Journal of Religious Ethics SET Studies in Biblical Theology
JRetS Journal of Religious Studies SCJ Sixteenth Century Journal
JRH Journal of Religious History SCR Studies in Comparative Religion
fRS Journal of Roman Studies Sem Semitica
JRT Journal of Religious Thought SJT Scottish Journal of Theology
JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism SMRT Studies in Med. and Ref. Thought
JSOT Journal for the Study of OT SOr Studia Orientalia
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies SPB Studia Postbiblica
JSSR Journ., Scient. Study of Religion SSS Semitic Studies Series
JTC Journal for Theol. and Church ST Studia Theologica
JTS Journal of Theol. Studies
TAPS Transactions of Am. Philos. Society
KJV King James Version TD Theology Digest
LCC Library of Christian Classics TDNT Theol. Diet, of NT, Kittel and
LCL Loeb Classical Library Friedrich, eds.
LQ Lutheran Quarterly TDOT Theol. Diet, of OT, Botterweck and
LTK Lexikon fur Theol. und Kirche Ringgren, eds.
LW Lutheran World. TEH Theologische Existenz Heute
McCQ McCormick Quarterly TGl Theologie und Glaube
MLB Modern Language Bible THAT Theol. Handwort. z. AT, Jenni and
MQR Mennonite Quarterly Review Westermann, eds.
NAB New American Bible TLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung
NASB New American Standard Bible TP Theologie und Philosophic
NCB New Century Bible TQ Theologische Quartalschrift
NEB New English Bible Trad Traditio
Neot Neotestamentica TRev Theologische Revue
NHS Nag Hammadi Studies TRu Theologische Rundschau
NICNT New International Commentary, NT TS Theological Studies
NICOT New International Commentary, OT TT Teologisk Tidsskrift
NIV New International Version
TToday Theology Today
TU Tcxte und Untersuchungen
NKZ Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift TZ Theologische Zeitschrift
NovT Novum Testamentum
NPNF Nicene and Post. Nic. Fathers UBSGNT United Bible Societies Greek NT
NRT Nouvelle revue thdologique VF Ugarit-Forschungen
NTA New Testament Abstracts USQR Union Seminary Quarterly Review
NTS New Testament Studies VC Vigiliae Christianas
NTTS NT Tools and Studies VT Vetus Testamentum
ODCC Oxford Diet, of Christian Church VTSup VT, Supplements
OIP Oriental Institute Publications WA Luther's Works, Weimar Ausgabe
OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung WO Die Welt des Orients
Or Orientalia WTJ Westminster Theol. Journal
OrChr Oriens Christianus WZKM Wiener Zeitsch. f. d. Kunde d. HOT.
OTS Oudtestamentische Studien ZA Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie
PEFQS Pal. Expl. Fund, Quart. Statem. ZAS Zeitsch. fiir agyptiscke Sprache
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly ZAW Zeitsch. fur die allies. Wiss.
PG Patrolngia graeca, Migne, ed. ZDMG Zeitsch. der deutsch. morgenl.
PJ Paldstina-Jahrbuch Gesellschaft
PL Patrologia latina, Migne, ed. ZDPV Zeitsch. des deutsch. Pal.-Ver.
PW Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyl. ZEE Zeitschrift fiir evangelische Ethik
QDAP Quarterly, Dep. of Ant. in Pal. ZHT Zeitsch. fiir hist. Theologie
RA Revue d'assyriologie et d'archeol. ZKG • Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte
RAC Reallexikon fur Antike und Chr. ZKT Zeitsch. fiir kath. Theologie
RArch Revue archeologique ZMR Zeitschrift fiir Missionskunde und
RB Revue biblique Religionswissenschaft
RechBib Recherches bibliques ZNW Zriisch. fiir die neutes. Wiss.
RechSR Recherches de science religifuse ZRGG Zeitsch. fiir Rel. u. Geistesgesch.
REg Revue d'egyptologie ZST Zeitsrhrift fiir syst. Theologie
RelS Religious Studies ZTK Zeitsch, fiir Theol. und Kirche
RelSoc Religion and Society ZWT Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftlichc
RelSRev Religious Studies Review Theologie

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Andrews University

Andrews University Press

Editor: KENNETH A. STRAND

ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SEMINARY STUDIES publishes papers and brief

Subscription Information: ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SEMINARY STUDIES is

Coinix.iilion hv Kisrnbraum. Winiiiia I.akr. IN 46590

Volume 22 Autumn 1984 Number 3

BACCHIOCCHI, SAMUELE. Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus' Rest

ANDREWS UNIVERSITY DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS

DE ALWIS, TISSA BRIAN. Christian-Buddhist Dialogue

BOOK REVIEWS ....................................... 357

Ball, Bryan W. The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of

Emmerson, Richard Kenneth. Antichrist in the Middle Ages:

BOOK NOTICES. ....................................... 380

INDEX TO VOLUME 22 (1984). ............................. 385

ABBREVIATIONS OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. .............. 389

ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SEMINARY STUDIES

Copyright © 1984 by Andrews University Press ISSN 0003-2980

MATTHEW 11:28-30: JESUS' REST AND THE SABBATH*

logion, but some attention will be given to these matters in an

1. The Literary Context

I. Rejection of the Messiah: Matt 11:1-24

The above outline indicates that Matthew has placed the

The First Strophe

thanksgiving of Christ would then be motivated by God's gracious

The Second Strophe

else draws upon an independent tradition." 11 Moreover, as Oscar

"Hunter, p. 245. In a similar vein M. D. Goulder writes: "In view of the

The Title "Son." Jeremias and others have objected to the

In the Synoptic Gospels it is abundantly clear that the title

The Third Strophe

teaching. 23 Without denying the insights that wisdom categories

2. The Sabbath Rest

where appeal is made to a familiar concept. Another indication is

The Sabbath Rest as a Symbol of the Messianic Age

dEveH-.l-Z, in APOT2: 153. Cf. Apoc. Moses 43:3. A similar view is

Rabbinical literature provides explicit examples where the

Jesus' "Rest" and the Sabbath Rest

The existence of this Messianic understanding of the sabbath

Jesus' "Rest" and Sabbath Pericopes

theologically by the Matthean phrase "at that time" (en ekeino to

"Rest" and the "Easy Yoke"

Yoke: Principle or Person?

religion and offered a new "yoke" of discipleship, which is charac-

3. Two Sabbath Pericopes: Matthew 12:1-14

The Disciples' Plucking Ears of Corn: Matthew 12:1-8

ministry, because he views it as "something greater than the

where the priests engaged in a host of activities designed to extend

The Man with the Withered Hand: Matthew 12:9-14

Matthew omits the scenic details given by Mark, such as the

sabbath was intended, not to legitimize medical service as a prefer-

58Cf. Sabourin, p. 640, n. 51.

the fulfillment of the Messianic rest typified by the sabbath. We

Was the Sabbath Still Observed?

6°Barth, p. 81; cf. also pp. 79, 83, 163, 244.

as an element unfavorable to a flight of Christians from Jeru-

How Was the Sabbath Observed?

62See my analysis of the text in From Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 69-71.

EXCURSUS: ORIGIN AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE LOGION

The question of the authenticity of the logion of Matt 11:28-30 is to

Turn in unto me, ye unlearned,

The presence of these similarities, as well as of certain divergencies,

68Hill, Gospel of Matthew, p. 204.

Almost a century ago Wilhelm Bousset, in an entry for the Encyclo